Udupi Congress holds demo against anti-pension move

Udupi, March 10: Members of Udupi Block Congress Committee headed by its president Pramod Madhwaraj on Thursday evening staged a dharna infront of the Gandhi statue at Service Bus Stand here protesting against the state government's decision to stop accepting applications for the Sandhya Suraksha (old age pension), widow pension and handicapped pension.

Hundreds of Congress activists participated in the dharna and shouted slogans against the state government.

Speaking on the occasion Pramod Madhwaraj said that government's decision to stop accepting application for its ongoing programmes amounts to insult to the poor and also to the democracy. "It is not fair to stop accepting applications quoting the reason of misuse of the scheme. If at all there are any cases of misuse, government employees are responsible and not the poor people. This decision shows the failure of the administrative machinery in the BJP ruling''.

Pramod also said that state government has been distributing rice, sugar and kerosene supplied by the central government and it failed utterly in providing ration cards to the poor. "BJP government in the state has been depending on the central government, which released over 25,000 crore grant to the state annually. Unless for that Yedyurappa should have closed his shop a two years back'', Pramod added.

Former Vice President of Udupi CMC Kushal Shetty said that BJP had been winning the elections using money and has been busy making money after coming to power. "Even the BJP councilors or local representatives are not exception to it. BJP councilors in Udupi are busy in real estate business'', Shetty added.

Former District Congress President MA Gafoor, ZP members Diwakar Kundar, Mallika Balakrishna, Mallika Ashok, leader of the opposition in the Udupi CMC Jayananda, District Congress Vice President Kishan Hegde Kolkebail, Taluk Panchayath members Dr Sunitha Shetty, Umesh Naik, state yough congress general secretary Amrith Shenoy, Janardan Bhandarkar, Hareesh Kini and others participated in the dharna.