The former Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda on Wednesday said that people will be forced to take to arms if the State government failed in its duty to protect them from anti-social activities.
Talking to presspersons here, Mr. Sadananda Gowda said that the State government had failed in its duty to protect the people in the State, more so in the coastal region, from underworld activities.
He referred to the murder of R.N. Naik, president of a credit cooperative society, in Ankola on December 21 and also to a case where an accused, arrested on the charge of extortion, attacked a policeman.
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Mr. Sadananda Gowda said that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Home Minister K.J. George should take stock of the situation in the coastal region where underworld activities were widespread.
“If you fail to do it, people will be forced to take to arms in self-protection,” he said.
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Earlier, speaking at the 90th birthday celebration of the former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Mr. Sadananda Gowda said that the law and order situation in the State had collapsed.
The state of lawlessness was because of internal power squabbles in the Congress, he said.
On the lack of efforts by the State Government in addressing the problems of arecanut growers, he said that as against losses estimated at Rs. 624 crore, the State government had released only Rs. 20 crore.
Though Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar announced a Rs. 175-crore package, it was yet to materialise, he said.