Normal life was crippled almost across Karnataka on Wednesday in the wake of a dawn-to-dusk bandh called by pro-Kannada outfits on the Karnataka-Maharashtra boundary row.

Autorickshaws and taxis remained off roads and only skeletal bus service operated in the state capital.

With schools and colleges closed, a holiday mood prevailed in the tech hub.

Functionong of banks and government offices was also affected and most IT firms remained closed.

The bustling Majestic area, a commercial hotspot with many cinema theatres, was deserted. Cinema theatres across the city were also closed and movie-related activities paralysed as the Film Chamber of Commerce also extended support to the bandh.

People confined to their homes could watch only Kannada channels on television as cable operators blacked out all non-Kannada ones.

The bandh, called by Karnataka Border Agitation Committee,' (an umbrella organisation of pro-Kannada outfits) to put pressure on the Centre to implement the Mahajan Commission report on the boundary issue evoked 'a good response' in most parts of Karnataka, official sources said.

Mysore, Mandya, Hassan, Bellary,Chitradurga, Shimoga, Tumkur, Gulbarga and Davangere responded well to the bandh call, they said.

Barring stoppage of a Mysore-Bangalore train at Chennapatna by pro-Karnataka activists, the bandh was peaceful till noon, said police.

However, security has been beefed up across the state with the deployment of 60,000 personnel, including home guards.

In Bangalore, police as well as City Armed Reserve and Rapid Action Force personnel kept a close vigil.

The bandh has been called less than a week after a landmark special session of Karnataka Assembly in Belgaum, held outside Bangalore for the first time in the state's history.

The session had adopted a unanimous resolution asking Centre to implement the Mahajan Commission report, which, submitted in 1967, had said Belgaum is part of Karnataka.

The Commission, constituted after a strong demand for it from Maharashtra, had also recommended transfer of a specified number of Marathi-speaking areas to Maharashtra and Kannada- speaking regions to Karnataka.

Maharashtra has rejected the report while Karnataka favours it.

A last-minute appeal made by Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy to call off the bandh was rejected by Kannada outfits led by Kannada Chaluvali leader Vatal Nagaraj, the lone MLA of his outfit in the Assembly.

Justifying the bandh, the Kannada outfits said they were also protesting the 'Centre's step-motherly treatment' against Karnataka on the boundary issue.

Barring slight damage to some state transport buses, the bandh was 'total yet peaceful' with no incidents of violence reported so far, police said.

Apart from 'some damage' to four BMTC buses and two KSRTC buses by activists, mostly outside city limits, no other damage was reported, BMTC Commissioner Upendra Tripathi told PTI.

According to Bangalore city police commissioner, N Achutha Rao, not a single incident of stone pelting or coercion or violence has been reported in the city so far.

However, about 150 activists belonging to Kannada Rakshana Vedike (Kannada Protection Forum), who tried to force their way into the city railway station for a 'rail roko' were taken into preventive custody, he said.

Shankar Bidari, addtional director general, law and order said except for 30 pro-Kannada outfit members, including Vatal Nagaraj, who were taken to preventive custody in front of Raj Bhavan in the afternoon, the bandh remained 'absolutely peaceful'.