MANGALURU: Demanding a thorough investigation and stringent punishment for right-wing activist Chaitra Kundapura who was arrested on Wednesday on charges of cheating a businessman by promising a BJP ticket, former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai on Thursday denied BJP links with the right-wing activist.
Anyone involved in the case, however big, should be arrested, the former chief minister said. Bommai said that BJP will take action against those misusing the party’s name. On Cauvery row, Bommai said that the State Government should stick to its affidavit that no additional water would be released to Tamil Nadu, and warned that the BJP will take to the streets if Karnataka’s interests are compromised.
“As per the tribunal order, Tamil Nadu should have cultivated Kuruvai crops on 1.8 lakh hectares. But they did it on over 4 lakh hectares and also released water. In the future, the farmers in the Cauvery basin and people in Bengaluru will suffer,” Bommai said, adding that the Karnataka government is not ready to talk to TN Chief Minister MK Stalin.
He accused the State Government of delaying in declaring drought-hit taluks. “They should have woken up when the pre-monsoon failed. There was undue delay in declaring drought, releasing compensation, and preparing a contingency agriculture plan. During my tenure, flood compensation was released in a month without waiting for the Centre’s guidelines,” he added.
He said the government should convert the farmers’ short-term loans into long-term and sanction new loans to farmers to stop farmers’ suicides.
On the BJP-JDS alliance, Bommai said the talks are at a preliminary stage while discussions on seat-sharing and constituencies are yet to take place.