Activists of the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) Dakshina Kannada district unit on Thursday carried out a protest near the residence of Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel in Mangaluru for his reported silence on the alleged denial of funds to the State from the Central government.
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NSUI, activists led by district president Suhan Alva, marched towards Mr. Kateel’s house raising slogans against Mr. Kateel and the Central government.
The police placed barricades about 500 metres before Mr. Kateel’s house to stop the protesters. Accusing Mr. Kateel and other MPs of the BJP of being silent on the alleged denial of funds, Mr. Alva alleged Mr. Kateel has failed to work for the development of the constituency.
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As the protesters tried to bring down the barricades, the police took them away to the Urva police station and released them an hour later.
Condemning the action of NSUI activists, BJP State secretary Brijesh Chowta said the protest was the way the Congress was trying to deflect attention of the people from ‘separate nation’ statement of MP D.K. Suresh.
The Centre grants funds as per the directions of 15th Finance Commission. The Congress government should have approached the commission with its grievance rather than doing protests in Delhi and making party activists protest in front of the houses of MPs, he claimed.
Dakshina Kannada district BJP president Satish Kumpala said if the Congress repeats such protests in the future, the BJP activists will retort by carrying out similar protests. The Congress has made use of students for the protests done to gain political mileage for the upcoming Lok Saba elections, he said.