As many as 60 Youth Congress activists were arrested on Monday when they tried to picket the residence of BJP State president B.S. Yeddyurappa demanding that he put pressure on the Union government to waive loans taken by farmers from nationalised banks.
At 9 a.m., police personnel foiled a bid by a group comprising 20 Youth Congress activists lead by its functionary C.G. Madhusudan to picket Mr. Yeddyurappa’s residence at Vinobha Nagar here and subjected them to pre-emptive arrest. At 10.30 a.m., another group of 40 activists of Youth Congress, including M. Praveen Kumar and K. Ranganath, who tried to picket Mr. Yeddyurappa’s residence, were arrested in a similar manner near Vinobha Nagar Chowki.
Addressing the protest meet earlier, Mr. Ranganath said BJP leaders in the State had promised that they would put pressure on the Union government to waive farm loans taken from nationalised banks if the State government waived loans taken from cooperative banks.
The Congress government in the State has waived crop loans to the tune of ₹8,165 crore, he said, adding that the BJP leaders have failed to put pressure on the Centre to waive crop loans taken from nationalised banks.
Cases under Section 71 of The Karnataka Police Act, 1963, were booked with Vinobha Nagar police station against the arrested, who were released later.
