SC/ST Reservation Bill to be tabled in Karnataka legislature session: CM Bommai

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], December 18 (ANI): The SC/ST Reservation Ordinance Replacement Bill is one among a set of Bills to be introduced in a session of the State Legislature to be held at the Suvarna Soudha in Belagavi from tomorrow, said Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai.

Talking to reporters here on Sunday, he said there will be a discussion on problems of North Karnataka during the session. Reacting to MES agitation in Belagavi on the border dispute, the CM said, “The MES had been indulged in such things in the last 50 years. The state government knows how to control them and the same is being done to keep the MES under check.”

Commenting on Leader of the Opposition in the State Legislative Assembly Siddaramaiah’s statement on the Mangaluru cooker bomb blast, Bommai said, “the opposition leader says it was an ‘accidental’ incident. Let Siddaramaiah analyse KPCC President D.K.Shivakumar’s statement on this incident and then react to it as it will uphold the dignity of the position he has held.”

On November 19, an explosion was reported in an auto-rickshaw in Mangaluru.
Auto driver Purushotham, and the prime accused, identified as 24-year-old Mohammed Shariq, were on fire when shopkeepers and local residents rushed to their rescue soon after the blast.

On November 20, Karnataka Police identified the bomber as Karnataka’s Thirthahalli-based Mohammed Shariq, a terror accused charged with links to the Islamic State (IS), who is on the run since September 2022.

The bomber had suffered nearly 40 per cent burns in the explosion.
A day after the explosion in Mangaluru, Karnataka Director General of Police Praveen Sood on said the mysterious blast was an “act of terror”.

The case was later handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
Asked about Shivakumar’s statement on voting through illegal means, the Karnataka CM said the order was issued to that company in 2017 by the then Congress government and Shivakumar must know about it.

“The Congress Party has the habit of casting votes through illegal means. The present BJP government has ordered a probe and the police have investigated and arrested a few persons. The probe will reveal from which area they have come for which all the constituencies.

The Election Commission of India has adopted a new method wherein if any voter has EPIC in another constituency, the name of the such voter is deleted from the electoral roll automatically through the photograph,” he added.

Shivakumar on Thursday slammed the ruling BJP government over the alleged theft of voter data and said that this should be considered an “act of terror” and the accused in the case should be arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Earlier on November 16, Bengaluru’s civic body, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) said in a press release that it had cancelled permissions granted to the Chilume Educational Cultural and Rural Development Trust to conduct house-to-house surveys to help create awareness about the Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) programme.

The NGO has been accused of collecting personal information from the public, under the guise of spreading awareness, by impersonating BBMP officials.
The Congress, after that, alleged that this was done in connivance with the ruling government of the state.