The Congress is undertaking the padayatra to highlight "failure" of the BJP government and against illegal mining.
Opposition Congress leader in the Karnataka assembly Siddaramaiah today met governor HR Bhardwaj and requested him to direct the BJP government for protection to the "Bellary chalo" padayatra programme starting in Bangalore tomorrow.
The Congress is undertaking the padayatra to highlight "failure" of the BJP government and against illegal mining.
After his nearly hour-long meeting with the governor, Siddaramaiah said, "It is the duty of the government to maintain law and order," apparently apprehending trouble during the padayatra that passes through nine districts
The padayatra culminates in a rally in Bellary on August nine, coinciding with the Quit India Movement day.
He said he had submitted the road map of the padayatra to the governor seeking police protection.
Siddaramaiah said Congress was prompted to seek governor's intervention to get protection to the padayatra after health minister B Sreeramulu, hailing from Bellary, met some anti-social elements inside Bangalore Central Jail recently.
Sreeramulu, however, asserted that his visit to the jail was in his capacity as health minister to make an on the spot assessment of the problems faced by the inmates and in view of demands for better health facilities in the jail hospital.
To queries by mediapersons, he said he had been planning to visit the jail for a long time, as he also wanted to actually know under what conditions the convicts live.
"I was longing to visit the jail. I just went one day. I met fake stamp paper kingpin Abdul Karim Telgi and also notorious Dandupalya gang, convicted for rape and murder of women," he said.
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