Udupi: Yeddyurappa hails Kalladka Bhat; asks CM to drop Ramanath Rai

Udupi, Jun 24: Former chief minister and Karnataka BJP chief B S Yeddyurappa has demanded the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to drop Minister for Forests and Environment B Ramanath Rai for directing a Superintendent of Police of Dakshina Kannada to arrest RSS leader Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat if the latter attempted to disrupt peace in the society.

Addressing presspersons here on Friday, Mr. Yeddyurappa said Mr. Bhat was a sincere person and any attempt to arrest him without rhyme or reason would be illegal. Mr. Rai was indulging in such acts because he wanted to appease a particular community, he said.

Mr. Yeddyurappa said that Mr. Siddaramaiah had not followed protocol by not accompanying President Pranab Mukherjee during the latter’s visit to Sri Krishna Mutt/Temple on June 18. This despite the fact that Vishvesha Tirtha Swami of Pejawar Mutt had requested him to visit the temple.

Mr. Yeddyurappa said that he had allocated Rs. 40 crore to develop Kaginele, the birthplace of Kanakadasa, during his tenure as Chief Minister.

The government had woken up late to the problem of farm loan waiver. A large number of farmers had committed suicide in the State and nearly 25% had repaid their loans in the last four to five months. The State government should bring farmers who had repaid loans under the ambit of the waiver.

The State government had not been able to solve the sand extraction problem in the Coastal districts. Though the Union government was giving priority to the construction of national highways, the lack of sand had affected its development and also the progress of other developmental projects.

There was lot of corruption in the implementation of various works of State government.

The State government should stop accusing the Union government of step-motherly treatment. The Centre had been releasing funds to the State regularly for all Centrally-sponsored schemes, Mr. Yeddyurappa said.