Wayanad, Friday 12 March 2010: The Kerala Vyapari Vyavasayi Ekopana Samithi (KVVES) district committee and the UDF district committee will observe a dawn-to-dusk hartal in the district today in protest against the ruling of the Karnataka High Court upholding the ban on night traffic on the Sulthan Bathery-Gundlepet stretch of National Highway-212.

The Farmers Relief Forum, a farmers’ organisation, had also given a hartal call on the same day in the district in protest against the alleged anti-farmer policies of the Central government and alleged revenue recovery measures adopted by financial institutions against the farming community by invoking the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest (SARFAESI) Act.

KVVES district committee district general secretary K. Usman and vice-president K. Kunjirayin Haji told reporters on Thursday that the KVVES would intensify the agitation to reinstate night-time traffic.

Apart from this, fruits and vegetables supply from Karnataka to Malabar area would be blocked at the border check-posts in the district by the middle of April. The decision of the Kerala ministry to challenge the ruling of the Karnataka High Court in the Supreme Court would not solve the issue, they said.