Mangalore: Government should not interfere with Maths - Janardhan Poojary

Pics: Dayanand Kukkaje
Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (DV)

Mangalore, Dec 13: Former union minister and Congress leader Janardhan Poojary on Friday December 12 condemned the state government's plans to bring Maths under the control of the state muzrai department and said that the government should not interfere with the Maths, especially as it was not a part of the Congress manifesto.

Addressing a press meet here, he said, “Taking all Maths into the fold of Muzrai department was not mentioned in the party manifesto; hence the government should not interfere. This will hurt the sentiments of devotees.  There are so many Maths like Tumkur Siddaganga Math, Suttur Math, and Krishna Math which serve the poor and needy people by involving themselves in social work."

Directly addressing the government, he said, "Why do you (government) want to interfere in the work done by Maths?  Do you think government officials will do this work of charity? Doesn’t the government have any other work? Today you are trying to take control of all the Maths; tomorrow you may take all churches and mosques into your fold. This is not a work that would benefit people. If there is any wrong doing in the administration of religious centers then there are IPC sections to penalize them."

He added, "Presently the chief minister is doing good work but a few are trying to spoil his efforts. The government should not hurt anyone’s religious sentiments." 

He also condemned the proposal of some officials in the union government to impose a ban on arecanut.

"As many as 12 states, several districts of Karnataka like Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Karwar, Uttar Kannada, Chikmagalur, Tumkur, and especially 90% of the coastal areas depend upon arecanut farming. If the government bans arecanut it will push the farmers to suicide. Families of many areca growers will suffer and plunge into misery. Although the World Health Organization (WHO) has mentioned presence of 0.15 alkaloids in arecanut, it is far from truth. Arecanut has many benefits too. There is cholesterol in milk, alcohol contents in syrup and so on, but will the government ban them?" he questioned.
 
"The chief minister should immediately form an all-party delegation without harbouring any political agendas and meet the Prime Minister of India, the President and the Advocate General and hold serious discussions on this issue. Moreover, opposition party leaders should also raise their voice in the Parliament. I too will bring this issue to the notice of Congress president Sonia Gandhi," he said.
 
Kallige Tharanath Shetty, Suresh Ballal, Harikrishna Bantwal and Arun Coehlo were present.