Yadgir bandh held to demand drought status for district

​Hundreds of farmers, social activists, and members representing Dalit organisations extended their support to the bandh in Yadgir on Monday (September 7). | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT The call for ‘Yadgir Bandh’, given by various organisations demanding that the Karnataka government declare Yadgir district as drought-affected, evoked an overwhelming response on Monday (September 7), concluding peacefully without any untoward incident.Shopping complexes, commercial trading centres, hotels, restaurants, and the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) remained closed in Yadgir city. Essential services, including hospitals, medical shops, and milk centres, functioned normally.​Hundreds of farmers, social activists, and members representing Dalit organisations, the advocates’ association, progressive thinkers, members of the transgender community, the BJP, and pro-Kannada groups extended their support to the shutdown.​While government-run schools declared a holiday in view of the strike, both public and private transportation operated as usual.​Protesters marched through the main streets before converging at Subhash Chandra Bose Circle, where they staged a hours-long sit-in dharna. They urged the State government to declare all six taluks in the district as drought-affected and announce immediate compensation for affected farmers.​Earlier, the State government had declared 101 taluks — including Shahapur taluk in Yadgir district — as drought-affected in the first phase, and an additional 24 taluks in the second phase. However, five other taluks in the district — Yadgir, Gurmitkal, Wadagera, Shorapur, and Hunsagi — were left out of both lists.​”Yadgir is among the worst drought-hit districts in the State, and local farmers are facing extensive crop losses due to a prolonged dry spell. The government should have declared the entire district drought-hit rather than limiting it to a single taluk,” the protesters stated, criticising successive governments for neglecting long-pending agricultural grievances.​Although traffic movement through Subhash Chandra Bose Circle was briefly disrupted due to the demonstration, the police successfully diverted vehicles onto alternative routes.​The protesters later submitted a memorandum addressed to Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar through the district administration. Key demands outlined in the memorandum include announcing Gurmitkal, Yadgir, Wadagera, Shorapur, and Hunsagi taluks as drought-affected alongside Shahapur; providing higher crop relief than the standard amounts prescribed under SDRF and NDRF guidelines, specifically requesting ₹50,000 per acre for impacted farmers; and fully waiving agricultural loans taken from nationalised and cooperative banks by farmers who suffered drought-related crop losses.Mallikarjun Satyampet, Channappa Anegundi, Mareppa Naik Mogdampur, Mareppa Chattarkar, Umesh Mudnal, Ravi Mudnal, C.S. Malipatil, and Bhimashankar Aldal and others were present Published - September 07, 2026 07:12 pm IST