Yeddyurappa in City: Cong Activists Besiege CM's Vehicle, Leaders Arrested
Pics: Savitha B R
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (PS)
Mangalore, May 22: Chief minister B S Yeddyurappa who is on a visit to the city was stopped by around 200 Congress activists here on Sunday May 22.
The Congress activists, carrying black flags and sporting black arm bands, shouted slogans and allegedly used abusive language and gheraoed the CM's vehicle, causing traffic snarls for more than half an hour.
Police teams swung into action and took local Congress leaders into custody. The protest by the Congress seemed planned as more than 200 activists participated, yet it was kept under wraps until the last moment.
Though the police managed to disperse the crowd, the CM had to take a detour to reach Nehru Maidan, where Yeddyurappa is scheduled to address a rally in the afternoon.
Earlier in the day, Yeddyurappa landed at Bajpe airport at 11.40 am where he was given a guard of honour. He also paid his respects to the departed souls in the air crash tragedy.
Rs 23 crore for Mangalore airport
He then addressed a press meet wherein he announced that the government has released Rs 15 crore for the extension of the airport runway, apart from Rs 8 crore for the overall development of the airport. He also said that the district jail will be soon shifted to the city outskirts.
On illegal mining in the state, he said that because of his decisions, more than 90 percent of illegal mining has stopped.
Lambasting the opposition, he said that the government is in possession of documents pertaining to Deve Gowda's corruption and will soon bring it before the public. He pointed out that by refusing to go with the government's decision to convene assembly session, the opposition parties have proved that they are anti-democratic.
He also took a dig at governor Bhardwaj, asking how could a governor who is an expert at Constitution and law behave in an anti-Constitutional manner. The governor has committed a serious offence and has brought bad name to his post, he said.
He expressed confidence that as his party has absolute majority, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and home minister Chidambaram would not take any unfavourable decision and would not dissolve the government.
He also mocked Janardhan Poojary saying, "He had vowed to quit if BJP were to win all three seats, where is he now and why is not commenting?"
He advised Congress to introspect as well as restrospect over all that has happened in the recent times. People are fed up and will not tolerate such opposition parties anymore, he said.
On Pejawar Swamiji's July 13 deadline regarding land denotification, he said that he was not aware of the issue and will comment only after a thorough study of the case.