MANGALORE: The Congress party has accused the district administration and the police of being "ineffective" in controlling the fundamentalist elements in the districts and attacks on minorities.

Former Minister B. Ramanatha Rai told presspersons here on Wednesday that the police and the district administration were under pressure from the State Government to avoid taking action against the perpetrators of attacks on the minorities and that some innocent people were being booked and punished.

Mr. Rai alleged that the shops and eateries belonging to minorities were being destroyed. As a result, the minorities were being pushed to the edge of poverty.

Their livelihood was being clandestinely and systematically snatched, he said.

He said Mangalore witnessed 54 protest rallies in the past month and most of them were organised by the fundamentalist groups when inflammatory remarks were made. The youth were being used for attacks on minorities, he added.

Mr. Rai said the social atmosphere in Mangalore in particular and Dakshina Kannada in general was continuously subjected to strife by fundamentalist organisations. Mega projects had been lined for Mangalore. If the law and order situation remained the same in the city and the district, it might send a wrong signal to the investors and the chances of Mangalore attracting investment will be jeopardised, Mr. Rai added.

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