Belagavi (KTK), (PTI): A security blanket has been thrown across the Belagavi city as the winter session of the Karnataka Legislature starts on Monday.

Amid fear over the border row with Maharashtra and disruption due to protests by various communities, the entire city resembles a cantonment of sorts.

Suvarna Vidhana Soudha, where the session is in progress appears like a barrack with policemen deployed all over the place.

According to police sources, nearly 5,000 policemen have been deployed for maintaining law and order in the city.

These policemen include six superintendents of police, 11 additional superintendents of police, 43 deputy SPs, 95 inspectors and 241 sub-inspectors, they added.

The sources also said there will be a sizeable number of policemen deployed at the Vaccine Depot ground where the Madhyavarti Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti is staging a demonstration demanding merger of Belagavi with Maharashtra.

Some leaders from Maharashtra had wished to participate in the event. A Maharashtra MP Dhairyasheel Mane had even requested the Belagavi district administration to make arrangements for his visit to the city.

However, the district authorities imposed a ban on his entry saying that his possible inflammatory speech may create law and order problems.

Apart from the MES, various groups including farmers, are also staging demonstrations in Belagavi to press for their demands.

This session, which would be the last one of the current Assembly, as the elections are barely four months away, may also see commotion inside the House with political parties trying to draw the attention of people with their protests, sources said.

There are many bills which is likely to be tabled and cleared in the current session.

A controversial anti-Halal bill may also be introduced in the session as a private bill by a BJP legislator, which may cause furore, the sources added.

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Srinagar (PTI): Property worth Rs 1 crore belonging to a notorious drug peddler was on Saturday attached in Jammu and Kashmir's Srinagar, police said.

A double-storey house on eight marlas of land situated at Wantpora Eidgah, belonging to Basit Bilal Dar, a notorious drug peddler, valued at approximately Rs 1 crore, a police spokesperson said.

He said Dar is involved in two cases registered under various sections of the NDPS Act.

During investigation, it was established that the accused had acquired the said property through illicit proceeds generated from drug trafficking activities, the spokesperson said.

Consequently, the property was attached under the provisions of the NDPS Act. The attachment proceedings were conducted in the presence of the two independent witnesses, strictly in accordance with the prescribed legal procedures, he said.

As per the attachment order, the owner has been restrained from selling, leasing, transferring, altering, or creating any third-party interest in the property till further orders, the spokesperson added.