BANGALORE: Squarely blaming the "failure of intelligence and the police" for the communal violence in Shivajinagar and some other parts of Bangalore, the Congress on Monday demanded a judicial probe into the incidents.

A resolution in this regard was adopted by the party at a meeting convened in Bangalore to decide the party's strategy for the forthcoming elections to the urban local bodies.

Briefing presspersons after the meeting, KPCC president M. Mallikarjun Kharge said the judicial probe should establish the truth, especially in the context of the allegations by the RSS that the Congress was involved in triggering the violence.

Mr. Kharge observed that an alert police force could have prevented the violence. In the first place, permission should not have been given by the police for the conduct of public functions like the protest against Saddam Hussein's execution, Virat Hindu Samajotsava and CITU conference on dates so close to each other, he argued.

The police as well as the intelligence wing had failed to properly assess the situation, he charged.

He demanded that the proposed judicial probe should identify those who instigated the violence.

Action

"Action should be taken against even legislators, irrespective of whether they belonged to the Congress, BJP or the JD (S) if their involvement in the violence is proved by the probe," he remarked. But he ducked a pointed query on whether there was involvement of any legislators in the incident.

Mr. Kharge alleged that the police had acted inhumanly and opened fire at innocent people who were caught in the violence.

He demanded disciplinary action against the policemen.

The meeting also resolved to urge the Government to hold the elections to the urban local bodies at the earliest.

Drought

A resolution was adopted alleging that the Janata Dal (S)-BJP Government had failed to properly handle the drought situation in the State. Mr. Kharge alleged that the State had failed to utilise the drought relief assistance granted by the Centre.

Instead, the State was accusing the Centre of step-motherly attitude only to divert public attention from its failure, he alleged.

Farm loans

Mr. Kharge termed the Chief Minister's assurance of waiving farmers' loans as a "political gimmick" and asked him to waive the loans of all farmers, instead of helping only those who had borrowed from cooperative banks.

He pointed out that of the total 70 lakh farmers in the State, only 10 lakh had borrowed from cooperative banks while the remaining were depending on either nationalised banks or moneylenders.

Meanwhile, Congress legislators from Bangalore have appealed to people of all communities to join hands in restoring peace in the trouble-hit areas. In a press release, the Congress MLAs condemned the violence in the city.

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