MANGALORE: A delegation of Dakshina Kannada district unit of Karnataka Dalit Sangarsha Samiti will call on Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on Friday and urge him to reinstate P. Chandrappa as the commissioner of Mangalore City Corporation. At present, Dr. Chandrappa, who is due to retire in December this year is serving as the commissioner of Mangalore Urban Development Authority.

P. Keshav, district convener of the samiti told presspersons here on Monday that B. Nagaraj Shetty, district in-charge Minister, too had assured the delegation which met him recently that he would make every effort to have Dr. Chandrappa reinstated. Noting that the Dalit official was transferred merely because he stood up to the lobby of builders and contractors, Mr. Keshav said this was unfortunate.

According to him, Mr. Shetty had got the official transferred at the request of opposition BJP corporators. He said the Minister had realised his mistake of having transferred an honest official and wanted to make amends. Efforts were on to post a Dalit official in place of Krishnappa Poojary, who succeeded Dr. Chandrappa. Mr. Keshav claimed that Mr. Poojary had filed a warning against such a move.

Mr. Keshav said the samiti would be forced to launch an agitation if the Government failed to reinstate Dr. Chandrappa as commissioner of the city corporation by August 31.

Mr. Keshav released an eight-point charter of demands including nomination of at least one Dalit member to the corporation.

The samiti had already submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister and hoped that the interaction would be fruitful, he said.

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