The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Gridlock: Kumaraswamy blames police

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Wednesday, Nov 19, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Gridlock: Kumaraswamy blames police

Special Correspondent

‘Police collected money from us for monitoring traffic ’

‘IT employees should stay for a night in a village’
‘Children in rural areas walk 6 km to go to school’

BANGALORE: Janata Dal (S) State unit president H.D. Kumaraswamy on Tuesday squarely blamed the State Government, especially the police, for the inconvenience caused to Bangaloreans in the form of long hours of traffic jam as a fallout of the convention organised by his party on Monday.

Mr. Kumaraswamy told presspersons that the police had even collected fee from the party to monitor the traffic situation. “I had personally spoken to Bangalore City Police Commissioner a week ago and gave him all the information about the convention including the expected turnout of people,” he said.

He brushed aside the suggestion that his party should have organised such a mega event in some small towns so that Bangalore would not have faced traffic snarls. He said the focus of Monday’s event was not to mark his formal taking over as party State president but to provide a forum for farmers to express their anguish against the pathetic condition of civic amenities in rural areas, particularly the “abysmally bad” power supply situation. While Bangalore is facing two hours of loadshedding daily, villagers got only two hours of supply during the day. Farmers are angry with this and had come in large numbers on their own to protest this.

“Do they not have the right to protest in Bangalore with the sole intention of drawing the attention of the Government which is apathetic to them?,” he asked.

About sharp criticism from some IT employees for organising such an event which caused traffic snarls, he said: “I request such sophisticated people to visit a village and stay there for a night to know the pathetic living conditions. This would help them understand the anguish of villagers,” he said.

“People in Bangalore were definitely inconvenienced on Monday. But villagers have to face the problems with respect to civic amenities every day. That is why the villagers decided to come to Bangalore to protest at least for a day,” he said.

The party would not have been able to organise such an event if the Government had taken steps to respond to farmers’ problems.

Referring to the strong views that such protests should never be held in Bangalore, he said: “Imagine what will happen if farmers decide not to work for you.” He alleged that such upwardly mobile people, who make noises at the drop of a hat, never execute their responsibility of exercising the franchise.

Mr. Kumaraswamy expressed regret over the episode of schoolchildren caught in traffic jam because of his party event. “But I would like to tell you that in villages, the schoolchildren have to walk nearly six km a day to reach their schools,” he said.

He took exception to the BJP leaders terming the attack by Janata Dal (S) workers on the former Minister C. Chennigappa as that by “JD(S) goondas”. “It is the BJP which first introduced goonda culture in the State. Let the BJP tell us which goondas attacked churches and attacked MP H.T. Sangliana?”

Mr. Kumaraswamy accused some BJP ministers of talking like “goondas” and urged the Chief Minister to control them. Expressing anger over some of the BJP ministers, including B.N. Bachche Gowda, criticising his father and brother, Mr. Kumaraswamy said his father H.D. Deve Gowda would not be shaken even if hundred such attacks were made. He said Mr. Bachche Gowda should visit a mental hospital.

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