The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : MLA wants cases against farmers dropped

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Sep 09, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

MLA wants cases against farmers dropped

Staff Reporter

BANGALORE: The Janata Dal (Secular) MLA for Hirekerur, B.C. Patil, has warned that farmers in his constituency will launch an agitation by preventing the movement of traffic on highways in the constituency if the Government fails to withdraw within a month criminal cases filed against 212 farmers.

The former police officer told presspersons here on Thursday that in the first session of the present Legislative Assembly he had demanded that the Government withdraw what he termed false cases against farmers in his constituency.

Chief Minister's promise

Chief Minister N. Dharam Singh had promised to look into the issue.

Later, after the Assembly was prorogued following the budget session, he had threatened to resign from the Assembly because the assurance was not kept.

He sent his letter of resignation to the party President H.D. Deve Gowda, requesting him to forward it to the Speaker.

Despite repeated requests, the Government has not come to the rescue of the farmers.

The case against the Hirekerur farmers is among the 21 cases pending against farmers, students, workers and political leaders that the Government had proposed to withdraw. The Government is now saying that the matter is being considered by the Law Department, he said.

Pressure

Asked whether there is a political angle to the matter, Mr. Patil said he has been informed that Law Minister H.K. Patil is under pressure from some Congress leaders of Hirekerur not to withdraw the cases.

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