Karnataka - Mangalore   

Tulu samithi stages demonstration

Staff Correspondent

Statehood for Tulu-speaking areas sought; meeting to discuss plan of action

IN SUPPORT OF DEMANDS: Members of the Tulu State Action Committee staging a demonstration in front of the office of the Deputy Commissioner in Mangalore on Wednesday.

MANGALORE: After a lull for a few years the demand for a Tulu State has cropped up again in Dakshina Kannada.

Tulu Rajya Horata Samithi (Tulu State Action Committee), a registered body, which recently held two preliminary meetings to mobilise the people, staged a demonstration in front of the office of the Deputy Commissioner here on Wednesday to urge the Government to fulfil its various demands. The demonstration was led by Dinesh, convener of the committee.

The demand for a Tulu State existed during the period of re-organisation of States. Later, when districts were formed, and when Kodagu became a district, the local people here had raised the statehood issue. When Kodavas demanded statehood a few years ago, the Tulu statehood issue was again raised. After the death of P. Sadhu Shetty five years ago, the issue took a back seat. It is only this year the issue has come up again.

Mr. Dinesh said today's demonstration was aimed at drawing the attention of the people to a public meeting which the committee had planned.

The committee had started organising sub-committees in villages in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts as well as Kasaragod in Kerala to gather support for the Tulu statehood demand.

As a preliminary step to the demand the committee was demanding that the companies setting up units in the district should provide jobs for Tulu-speaking people. If such people lacked necessary skills the companies should train them. The units should provide 80 per cent posts to Tulu-speaking people, he said.

The Government should create Tulu minority quota seats to recruit Tulu-speaking people in government departments. The banks should reserve posts for Tulu-speaking people, he added.

He said Tulu was among the Dravidian languages. As per the law, if a language was spoken by a majority of people in three districts, a State could be formed, he claimed. Mr. Dinesh said the committee had planned to meet at Odiyoor Math in Bantwal taluk on July 25 to discuss its plan of action.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

4,021 cases of malaria in Dakshina Kannada
Tulu samithi stages demonstration
Drivers put to hardship due to poor road condition
Airport gets ISO certificate
In Mangalore Today

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu