BENGALURU: With the Opposition Congress pushing ahead with its padayatra over the Mekedatu issue, the local administration on Monday filed an FIR against as many as 31 party leaders, including KPCC president DK Shivakumar, Congress legislature party leader Siddaramaiah and leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjuna Kharge, for violating Covid norms.
In more trouble, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has asked Karnataka DG&IGP Praveen Sood to initiate necessary action and inquiry against Shivakumar for failing to follow Covid-appropriate behaviour when he met some schoolchildren during the padayatra. The state police chief has been asked to submit an action-taken report within seven days.
The Congress kicked off the Mekedatu padayatra from Sangama in Kanakapura taluk of Ramanagara district. Shivakumar continued to dare the authorities, sarcastically remarking that he will furnish more videos of the party’s rank and file taking part in the big-ticket event which has witnessed over 7,000 people in attendance. The padayatra, under his leadership, continued with much fanfare on Monday and thousands of participants heading towards Kanakapura from Shivakumar’s hometown Dodda Alanahalli village.
‘VEHICLES AT SANGAMA IDENTIFIED’
The jurisdictional Sathanur police have also booked MP D K Suresh, former CM M Veerappa Moily, party leaders Dr G Parameshwara, Eshwar Khandre, Umashree, B K Hariprasad, M B Patil, Ramalinga Reddy, H K Patil, N A Haris, Mohammed Nalpad Haris, T B Jayachandra, H M Revanna, Saleem Ahmed, Laxmi Hebbalkar, Vinay Kulkarni, Priyank Kharge, Dr Yathindra Siddaramaiah, U T Khader, Sowmya Reddy, Cheluvarayaswamy, Motamma, and also Jayamala, ‘Duniya’ Vijay, Sa Ra Govind and Sadhu Kokila from the Kannada film industry.
Following a complaint from Kanakapura tahsildar H Vishwanath, the FIR was filed under Sections 141, 143, 290, 336 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, and Subsection (3A) of Section 5 of Karnataka Epidemic Diseases Act, 2020. “We had earlier issued notice and again orally instructed them to stop the rally. Since they are continuing with the padayatra, more people, especially the leaders, will be booked for flouting norms.
We have already identified the vehicles which were at Cauvery Sangama on Sunday in violation of the weekend curfew norms and action will be taken against the owners, including the travel agencies,” informed Ramanagara DC Dr K Rakesh Kumar. Meanwhile, in a letter to the Karnataka DG&IGP, the child rights body chairperson stated that they have taken suo-motu cognizance of a video on Twitter wherein Shivakumar is seen meeting schoolchildren during the padayatra, thereby involving children in political activity.