Backing the demand for allowing kambala (slush track buffalo race) in the State, B.S. Yeddyurappa, State president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, said here on Monday that he was hopeful that the Karnataka High Court will lift its stay on it on January 30, the next date of hearing on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL).
Addressing presspersons he said that the kambala was a folk sport and had its own history. The State government should not ban it as people in the coastal belt had emotional attachment to it.
Mr. Yeddyurappa said that the party would apprise Ravishankar Prasad, Union Minister for Law and Justice and Information Technology, on the significance of kambala when he is scheduled to visit Mangaluru on January 25. The Minister would be requested not to ban kambala in future.
The former Chief Minister said that the government should not forcibly acquire land for the expansion of Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL). The government should give adequate compensation to those whose land would be submerged by storing water at the new Thumbe vented dam up to the maximum height of seven metres.
He said that the party would raise the issues relating to drought and law and order in the State in the next Legislature session beginning February 9. The Chief Minister should come out openly on how much money the State had spent on drought relief works, he added.
