The Hindu : Karnataka News : Congress workers held for trying to close down kendra

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Karnataka

Karnataka

Congress workers held for trying to close down kendra

Staff Correspondent

‘The facility has failed to deliver
the goods’

Chitradurga: Several Congress workers were arrested and later released for trying to forcibly close down a Nemmadi Kendra here on Wednesday alleging lapses in the system.

The party workers gathered at the Nemmadi Kendra opposite District Arms Reserve Police office, staged a dharna under the leadership of the district president of Congress Backward Categories Division, B.T. Jagadeesh, and accused the kendra of failing to deliver the goods. In a release, demanding that the Nemmadi Kendras be shut down, Mr. Jagadeesh said that instead of helping people, the kendras were create more problems for them, mainly those from the rural areas.

“After arriving here from villages, people have to stand in queues for hours, yet their work such as getting registered for below poverty line cards or obtaining caste certificates was not completed,” he alleged.

He demanded that the system be abolished and the previous system where all such work was done at the taluk offices be reintroduced.

Later in the day, MLA S.K. Basavarajan echoed the Congress workers’ demand saying that the Government close down Nemmadi Kendras in the interest of the people. Interestingly, he gave this statement after inaugurating a Nemmadi Kendra in the city.

Though he admitted that the launching of more such kendras would ease the burden, he said that he felt the system was unscientific.

He said that following complaints from people, he had urged the department concerned to open another kendra. “I have asked them to open a third kendra on Holalkere Road so that the people coming from the villages, need not wait for long to get their work done,” he said.

Stressing that the system be scrapped, he, however, said it should not be done immediately as it would cause problem to the people.

The Government should gradually close down the system and reintroduce the earlier method which was useful. The JD(S) leader urged the Government to sort out the problem in the interest of the people.

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