Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore   

BJP seeks ban on online lottery

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE FEB. 18. The BJP today asked the S.M. Krishna Government to ban online lottery in the State as it had ruined the lives of many people.

Addressing a public meeting organised by the party at Yelahanka here, the Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, Jagadish Shettar, took the Government to task for pursuing "anti-farmer and anti-poor" policies during the past three years. The increase in the prices of essential commodities due to drought had made the plight of the common man miserable. Even after increasing the power tariff many times, the Government had not been able to ensure regular power for irrigation pumpsets. But the same Government was making moves to get a criminal case against the film actor, Sanjay Khan, in a power theft case withdrawn, he alleged.

Charging that the Government was giving protection to rich people to run all kinds of businesses, he said corruption was rampant in all the departments. "The performance of the Chief Minister is worse than that of the Indian cricket captain, Sourav Ganguly, in South Africa."

The Centre had released adequate funds to the State to tackle drought. But, instead of providing employment to the people under the food-for-work programme, "corrupt" officials and ministers had misused the funds and the foodgrains, he alleged, adding that the party's fight against the Congress would continue till the latter was removed from power.

Ramachandre Gowda, MLC, said most of the farmers were not cultivating their land because of the irregular power supply for their irrigation pumpsets. Drinking water scarcity was severe in many villages. Of the 3.5 lakh borewells in the State, nearly two lakh were non-operational. Houses constructed under the Ashraya Scheme had been distributed to the rich. A majority of people living below the poverty line had not been given yellow ration cards, he alleged.

R. Ashok, Katta Subramanya Naidu, and Suresh Kumar, MLAs, and the Bangalore Urban Zilla Panchayat member, S.R. Vishwanath, spoke.

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