Bellary Chalo : 1 dead during Congress padyatra

M.today

Bangalore, July 25:  After sleep-in protest at the Karnataka Assembly, the Opposition Congress MLAs are now up and walking. They are on a padyatra - Bellary chalo - against illegal mining and to highlight "failure" of the BJP government.

One party worker collapsed and died during the march which began on Sunday.

The Congress leaders will walk for 20 km every day, covering an average of 3 km per hour for 15 days. The Congress’ Bangalore-Bellary journey started from Bangalore on Sunday.

 

Earlier, Opposition leader Siddaramaiah met Governor H R Bhardwaj on Saturday and requested him to direct the BJP government for protection to the "Bellary chalo" padayatra programme.

After his nearly hour-long meeting with the Governor, Siddaramaiah said, "It is the duty of the government to maintain law and order," apparently apprehending trouble during the padayatra that passes through nine districts.

The padayatra culminates in a rally in Bellary on August 9, coinciding with the "Quit India Movement" day. He said he had submitted the road map of the padayatra to the Governor seeking police protection.

Siddaramaiah said Congress was prompted to seek Governor’s intervention to get protection to the padayatra after Health Minister B Sreeramulu, hailing from Bellary, met some anti-social elements inside Bangalore Central Jail recently.

Also, in order to to ensure that its movement against saffron party government enjoyed the support of cross section of people and shorn of political barriers, Congress roped in freedom fighters like H S Doreswamy, Jnanapeetha awardee U R Ananthamurthy, noted writer Baragur Ramachandrappa, B T Lalitha Naik, Prof Ravivarma Kumar and C S Dwarakanath, former chairman of Backward Classes Commission.

Meanwhile, in a bid to counter Opposition Congress padayatra, the ruling BJP announced holding of four rallies across the state from August 2.

"The BJP campaign would highlight two years of our government’s achievements and Opposition’s anti-people stance in contrast to the 15-day Congress padayatra to ’protect’ the state," BJP state unit president K S Eswarappa told reporters in Bangalore.

He said BJP has chosen Davanagere, the central part of Karnataka for its first rally, to be followed by rallies at Gulbarga on August 5, Mysore on August 12 and the final one at Bellary, home district of the three Bellary Ministers, on August 20.

"We have already held a conference in Bangalore to showcase achievements of the BJP-led government. We wanted to take this to people of all districts. Besides highlighting the achievements, we will also focus on the anti-people attitude adopted by opposition parties," Eswarappa said.

He alleged that the Congress padayatra was solely for political gains and said they were misleading people on the mining issue.