Traffic movement on Bengaluru’s Mekhri circle has been blocked for close to 4 hours on Thursday, March 3, as the Bengaluru traffic police have imposed a probationary ban on tractors entering the city.

Over two hundred farmers had come, driving tractors, to the city to lay siege to the Vidhana Soudha and demand a permanent water solution for parched districts like Tumakuru, Rural Bengaluru, Kolar and Chikkaballapur. They want the government to start the Yettinahole Irrigation Project, which would divert water from the Netravathi River towards these districts.

MA Salim, additional police commissioner of police (traffic) said that there was a ban on tractors imposed only today. “We had asked the farmers to park the tractors before they enter the city. However, they managed to enter the city upto Mekhri circle, where they have trespassed the barricade too,” he said.

Some farmers reportedly marched to Freedom Park and will go to Vidhana Soudha to press their demands of water for irrigation.​