The Hindu
- Government urged to end the chaos in card distribution
- ‘All the highways are in pathetic condition’
Udupi,Oct 15: Janata Dal (Secular) Udupi district unit on Tuesday threatened to hold a relay hunger strike to protest against the harassment of people in various government offices in the district and the anti-people policies of the State Government.
Janata Dal (Seular) district unit president Deviprasad Shetty told presspersons that there was confusion in the public distribution system in the district. Instead of giving the poor the yellow card (below poverty line cards), the rich were cornering the benefit.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had made a big issue of pathetic state of national highways and State highways, when it was in the Opposition. It had even launched a struggle against the ore-laden lorries moving in the district. “Although the condition of all the highways is bad in the district, the BJP is now silent as the ore-laden trucks belong to the mining lobbies. The Government is a puppet in the hands of the mining lobbies,” he said. Instead of giving sites to landless people, the State Government was giving lands to industries which had not even registered in the district. Land surveyors in Udupi were fleecing the people by charging money for doing work.
The Land Tribunal was not functioning and the land regularisation work had stopped. All these had hit the poor people. The selection of beneficiaries for government schemes such as “Bhagyalakshmi” and “Sandhya Suraksha” was completely politicised.
The BJP Government was getting the District Offices Complex built at the End Point in Manipal despite public opposition. The Janata Dal (Secular) too had opposed its construction in Manipal. After telling the people that the complex would come up in 30 acres of land in Manipal, now it was being built on 15 acres of land. The Government should take steps to solve all these problems. Should the Government fail to do so, the Janata Dal (S) would launch a relay-hunger strike in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office to protest against these anomalies from November 1, Mr. Shetty said.
Janata Dal (S) leaders Nagaraj Hebbar, G.M. Cherriabba, Yasudeva Yadiyal, and K.J.K. Achar were present.