CHIKMAGALUR: The mood in the Sangh Parivar camp is upbeat after the district administration permitted it to organise Shoba Yatra here on Saturday.

It is a programme organised by the Viswa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal in which an idol of Dattatreya will be taken out in a procession here on the eve of Datta Jayanti. The procession was banned in 2004 and 2005 by the authorities for law and order reasons. Hundreds of activists of the Komu Souharda Vedike and other organisations courted arrest in 2003 when they attempted to take out a parallel procession on the day Shoba Yatra was organised. In 2004, several BJP leaders, including Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, were arrested when they tried to take out a procession. In 2005, the Sangh Parivar boycotted the Datta Jayanti celebrations organised by the district administration.

K.L. Ashok, general secretary of the vedike, has announced that his organisation will take out a "march for harmony" on Saturday to protest against the decision of the district administration to allow Shoba Yatra. Nilaya Mitash, Deputy Commissioner, has clarified that the organisers of Shoba Yatra were the only group to have submitted a requisition in the prescribed format within the stipulated time.

He has said that any other organisation attempting to take out a procession will be dealt with according to law.

A separate route has been identified for devotees coming from Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts. About 2,500 policemen, including 20 platoons of the KSRP and two platoons of Rapid Action Force, will be deployed.

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