Udupi: A dharna was held by members of the Taluk Horata Samiti and other organisations near the bus stand at Hebri on Friday demanding that it be given a taluk status.
The state government recently declared three taluks for Udupi district — Kaup, Brahmavar and Byndoor.
Shops were also shut on Friday in support to the dharna held. Addressing the protesters, Prasanna Shetty, Samiti leader said that the demand for granting taluk status to Hebri was decades old;Taluk Horata Samiti further the M B Prakash Committee on Taluk Reorganisation had also agreed on creating Hebri taluk in 2012, but the government had ignored it.
It is said that people from naxalite-affected villages like Nadpal and Meggade had to go all the way to the taluk headquarters at Karkala to get their work done, but if Hebri was declared a taluk, people would find it easy to complete their work.
Meanwhile, Laxmi Dayananda, leader of the samiti said that demand for Kaup taluk was a recent one while the one for Hebri was a long-pending demand, but the government agreed to Kaup and ignored Hebri.