Three persons of a group of Scheduled Caste people who were staging a protest outside the Deputy Commissioner’s office here on Tuesday shocked the authorities by pouring cow dung slurry on them.
The group was protesting the against the alleged encroachment of 21 acres of land allotted to eight Scheduled Caste families at Doddihalli in Belur taluk in 1983 by ‘upper’ caste people.
Three of the protesters — Suresh, Saganaiah and Anantaramu — poured the slurry on themselves and raised slogans demanding justice even as police personnel and officials tried to stop them.
“We have records to support our claim. However, ‘upper’ caste people have been tilling our land. We brought the issue to the notice of the Belur tahsildar and the Deputy Superintendent of Police of the Arsikere subdivision. The officers were apathetic to our demand. The police officer scolded us when we sought justice,” a protester said.
The protesters demanded disciplinary action against the two officers. Deputy Commissioner K.P. Mohan Raj, who reached his office a few minutes later, was angry at the way the people protested. He asked them where was the need to pour filth on them when the administration was ready to listen to their problem. He also took the police officers to task for failing to avert such an incident.
