The State government will bring in a legislation to ensure that all private establishments in Karnataka comply with the government’s decision to rename certain towns and cities, said Kannada Abhivruddhi Pradhikara president L. Hanumanthaiah.
Dr. Hanumanthaiah, who held a meeting with officials in the district administration and later with representatives of various Kannada organisations here on Monday, said the proposed legislation would incorporate punitive provisions in the form of fines up to Rs. 10,000 for non-compliance with the government decision.
Later, he told presspersons that he had directed the district administration to fully implement Kannada in administration and replace the old “Belgaum” with Belagavi in all government establishments and records by November.
Panchayat Development Officers (PDO) were responsible for implementing Kannada in their panchayats. If a PDO fails to do, action would be taken. As far as pro-Maharashtra resolutions were concerned, they had no legal validity.
Meat consumption
Dr. Hanumanthaiah said meat eating practices were in existence since long times, the evidences of which was also found in the holy Vedas. The Brahmins too consumed meat in the past, he claimed.
But of late, many meat-eating individuals had changed their eating habits and turned vegetarian. There were many Dalits and Muslims who do not beef, while there were families in same communities that were fully vegetarian, he pointed out.
He attributed the ongoing confrontations on the topic of cow between two religious communities in India to vested politics.
“I think we should leave the decision of eating or not eating beef to individuals who have their own eating practices passed on from generations; there are families which eat dogs and donkeys, do we oppose them,” he said.
Nearly 3/4th of the world’s population consumes beef, he reminded the meeting. Eating beef or being a vegetarian or a non-vegetarian should be best left to individuals instead of playing politics with it, he added.
