Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai said on Tuesday that he has appealed to the organisations that have planned anti- and pro-Citizenship (Amendment) Act protests in the city on January 4 and January 12, respectively, to postpone them.
Addressing presspersons after a meeting, he said that Muslim organisations in the city, under the banner of the M uslim Central Committee of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi, have announced a protest against CAA at Nehru Maidan, near the office of the Deputy Commissioner, on January 4. Meanwhile, the BJP has said that it will organise a pro-CAA protest at the same venue on January 12.
At a meeting with representative of various organisations here on Tuesday, the Minister appealed to them to put off their protests by about 10 days. Both have said that they will think it over, he added.
Mr. Bommai said that in case the organisations want to protest as per their schedule, the Deputy Commissioner of Dakshina Kannada and the Police Commissioner would take a call on allowing them and making the necessary security arrangements. Bonds will be taken from the organisationss.
Peace meetings
He also said that once the two protests were over, ward-level peace committee meetings would be organised in the city. “I will personally visit the city during that time to attend some meetings,” he said. There should be no gap between the community and the police, he added.
To a question, he said the government would consider shifting the venue of protests from in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office to any other permanent locality such as Freedom Park in Bengaluru. The Minister was told that earlier, a Deputy Commissioner had proposed the same as processions and protests were coming in the way of traffic management. But it did not become a reality.
On the December 19 chaos in the city, Mr. Bommai said legal action would be initiated against only those who directly involved in the violence. A magisterial inquiry and a probe the Criminal Investigation Department have been ordered into the December 19 violence, as per the guidelines of the National Human Rights Commission, he said.
