Belagavi, Nov 16: Demanding inclusion of their community in the Scheduled Tribes list, members of various Kuruba organisations tried to storm the Suvarna Soudha here with sheep and goats on Wednesday.
They shouted slogans against the State government and said that the successive governments had neglected the community that was among the most backward in the State.
They said that their demand for inclusion in the Scheduled Tribes list was decades old, but it had remained ignored by governments of all parties.
The police asked them to stop outside the gate and offered to take their leaders to the Assembly hall to meet the Ministers concerned. They also refused an offer to wait till the Ministers came to the gate to talk to them.
When they tried to block the gates to the building, the police had to resort to lathi-charge to disperse them. Earlier, the protesters walked with their animals to the Suvarna Soudha from Belagavi and nearby villages, police sources said. They were around 400 in number, they estimated.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Amarnath Reddy, who was present, said that though the community had sought permission for staging a protest, they had not mentioned that they would barge into the Suvarna Soudha with their livestock.

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