Daijiworld Media Network – Karkala (SP)

Karkala, Mar 21: The taluk unit of BJP Yuvamorcha, on Wednesday March 20, held a protest at the bus stand here, against union petroleum minister, M Veerappa Moily, who is facing allegations of receiving funds from a corporate for his trust.

Addressing the protesters, block president of BJP, Maniraj Shetty, accused Moily of deceiving the people of the taluk, who had reposed trust on him and had elected him time and again as MLA.  He felt that Moily, by misusing his post, had set up a trust by making his own family members its directors, and pooled crores of rupees for the trust by using his influence, from different sources. He demanded Moily’s resignation from the union cabinet, recalling that the minister had earlier announced that corrupt people will not be allowed to contest the election on behalf of the Congress.

Yuvamorcha president, Mahavir Hegde, district BJP vice presidents, Sadashiva Shetty and Suresh Madival, and several other leaders also addressed the gathering, duly seeking resignation of Moily. Town BJP unit president, Giridhar Nayak, taluk panchayat president, Rashmi Shetty, and several other BJP leaders participated in the protest.

In the meanwhile, addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, MLA, H Gopal Bhandary, who happens to be the secretary of the said trust, clarified that the trust in question is not confined to Moily’s family alone, and that it has trustees from different walks of like.

“The trust was formed in 1966 with a view to help the downtrodden. It has been providing free education up to SSLC to poor students. The trust got 4.02 acres of land from the government after paying the valuation as fixed by the government on two different occasions. All the affairs of the trust are transparent,” he said. He stressed that those hurling accusations at Moily do not have any knowledge about the trust’s affairs. He accused BJP leaders and former MLA of trying to mislead the people by making false allegations against Congress leaders for political gains. “Those who are corrupt have no right to speak about Moily,” he reiterated.

A number of Congress leaders including Shekhar Madiwala, Avelin Louis, Prasanna Ballal, Sudhakar Kotian, Malini Rai, and others were present at the press conference.