Karnataka - Madikeri   

Act against criminals or face protest, police told

Staff Correspondent

MLA sets 15-day deadline to bring anti-social elements to book

MADIKERI: The BJP MLA from Virajpet, H.D. Basavaraj, on Friday, threatened to launch protests against the alleged failure of the police to stop crimes in Virajpet taluk of Kodagu within 15 days, if the department did not take steps to prevent criminals from indulging in offences.

Speaking to presspersons here, Mr. Basavaraj alleged that despite lodging complaints with the Superintendent of Police over timber smuggling in T. Shettigeri, Birunani, Kutta, Srimangala areas of Virajpet taluk, the police had failed to check the crime.

Those travelling in cars and other vehicles in the night in those areas were being waylaid and robbed. Some anti-social elements were collecting "hafta" by forcing people to shell out money on a weekly basis, he said.

Citing an example how a prospective candidate for the APMC elections in Gonicoppa was beaten up recently, Mr. Basavaraj said the culprits were allowed by the police to roam around freely. The police were supporting "goondaism" in Virajpet taluk, he alleged and demanded that the police arrest the two persons who had attacked the candidate.

Convention

Earlier, the president of the Kodagu district unit of the BJP, S.G. Medappa, announced that the BJP would organise a convention involving elected representatives in gram panchayats, cooperative institutions and the probable candidates in the APMC and taluk panchayat elections at Kushalnagar on May 10.

Senior leaders, D.H. Shankaramurthy, the Mangalore MP, D.V. Sadananda Gowda, the Kodagu district in-charge of the party, V.S. Acharya, Shobha, MLC, the Madikeri MLA, K.G. Bopaiah, the Virajpet MLA, H.D. Basavaraj, the former MLA from Somwarpet, M.P. Appachu Ranjan, among others, would attend it.

Mr. Medappa termed the training programme organised involving the elected representatives of gram panchayats here on Friday by the zilla panchayat as politically motivated. The Congress wanted to convert the training programme into a Congress function, he alleged taking exception to the omitting of names of Mr. Sadananda Gowda and Mr. Bopaiah in the invitation.

Interest waiver

The president of the Somwarpet taluk BJP unit and a former member of the Coffee Board, B.D. Manjunath, criticised the recent interest waiver stipulations of the Government over cooperative loans of farmers saying it will only help defaulters and not those who had paid up promptly.

The Government had announced that those who repaid loans, including penal interests, before June 30, 2005, would be eligible for complete waiver of accumulated interests as on that date.

In other words, the Government was encouraging farmers to default, Mr. Manjunath said. He demanded that the Government extend the benefit of the interest subsidy to fresh loans as well. Under this, a farmer is required to pay only six per cent interest and the balance would be borne by the Government. For instance, if the interest rate were 11.5 per cent, the Government would bear the difference of 5.5 per cent.

Mr. Manjunath criticised the silence of the Union Commerce Ministry, the Reserve Bank of India and commercial banks over the issue of waiving interests in the three-year moratorium period concerning the special coffee term loans.

Under this, loans of growers were re-phased for repayment over 11 years and a three-year moratorium period announced during which the growers were required to pay only interest, not principal amounts.

He urged the Coffee Board to extend the subsidy benefits to growers over loans availed from it for expansion of plantations, re-plantations, construction of godowns, drying yards, digging tanks and other development works in the 10th Plan period.

The Rs. 31 crore loan outstanding from growers to the Board, including Rs. 23 crores as interest, should be waived to save the grower from peril, he said.

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