Pics: Spoorthi Ullal
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (ANK)

Mangaluru, Aug 23: The district BJP on Wednesday August 23 staged a protest against the Congress state government over various issues including corruption, attacks and murders of right-wing activists, 'misuse' of Anti-Corruption Bureau and so on. The protest was held in front of DC's office.

Addressing the protest, MP Nalin Kumar Kateel said, "Four years ago, people had high hopes in the Congress government but now they have started regretting bringing it to power because of the frequent incidents of violence and hate politics.

"Chief minister Siddaramaiah is known to thrown allegations against other ministers, but the Congress government itself is involved in every scam. They (Congress government) started with Arkavathi scam, and thinking this was not enough, they went for sand mafia. Siddaramaiah was not satisfied even with that, and eyed the Yettinahole project, spending thousands of crores in the name of development and extending the estimated budget to Rs 30,000 crore. Then there was the steel bridge controversy. This is how the Congress government makes money," he alleged.

"Under the previous BJP government there were no such incidents and we gave free hand to the Lokayukta as we believed in it. But Siddaramaiah knew that Lokayukta was strong and it would create trouble for him, so he undermined it and introduced the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) which is in his clutches. Siddaramaiah is protecting himself, and not protecting the interests of the people of the state.

"There has been a series of murders like that of Prashanth Poojary, Sharath, Rudresh and Kuttappa but the government has shown no interest in bringing the culprits to book. The Congress government is following the divide and rule policy and hurting the sentiments of Hindus by enforcing Tipu Jayanti which created turmoil in the state. Sincere officers like Bande, Ganapathy, D K Ravi lost their lives. People, officers and women are not secure under this government. If you (Siddaramaiah) have any shame, then resign from your post, and you will soon be behind bars for your corruption," Kateel said.

BJP spokesperson Sulochana Bhat said, "The Congress government has introduced Indira Canteens just to generate income prior to the elections. Congress has assured to provide transparent administration but it is not so in reality. BJP was labelled as a corrupt party but to control corruption Siddaramaiah introduced Anti-Corruption Bureau by undermining the Lokayuta, but since the enforcement of ACB, he is constantly misusing it. The ACB officials are under the control of these ministers. After ACB was introduced, the first case that hit headlines was the Hublot watch controversy, but unfortunately it was not investigated. Recently, fake cases of illegal land denotification were registered against former CM Yeddyurappa. But have you (Siddaramaiah) ever investigated the cases which registered against Congress leaders?

"Siddaramaiah and Ramanath Rai are dozing off, and in their dreams they only think of ways to defame Yeddyurappa and Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat respectively. Bundles of notes were found during IT raids at energy minister D K Shivakumar's residence but he is been protected. The allegations against Yeddyurappa are baseless and Siddaramaiah has no right to talk against Yeddyurappa. Tainted ministers like Laxmi Hebbalkar, Ramesh Jarkiholi are also being protected. Meti has become known for his sex scandal and K J George was involved in the DySP Ganapathy case, but they all got clean chit in a short period of time. There were also others like Tanveer Sait's video rowm, T P Ramesh's misbehaviour and controversy over a woman kissing Siddaramaiah. The entire state is ashamed of the Congress mnisters. All of them need to be sacked from the cabinet," she said.

Yogish Bhat said, "Congress government has utterly failed in its 4 years of administration, The cabinet filled with tainted ministers. Lokayukta was supreme but it was destablised and ACB was introduced, where Siddaramaiah himself is the supreme. He is now trying to defame Yeddyurappa by registering fake cases by pressurizing the ACB officials. The Congress government is engaging in revenge politics and targeting some groups while favouring and protecting its ministers."

Padmanabha Kottary said, "People have lost faith in the Congress government and in its administration of four years. People will retaliate in the upcoming elections and definately BJP will come back to power."

Capt Brijesh Chowta, Bharath Shetty, Vedavyas Kamath, Eshwar Kateel, Pooja Pai, Sandhya, Nagraj Shetty, Kasturi Panja and others were present.