Backward class youth being misled by communal forces in coastal district'

Mangalore, September 21: The backward class youth in the coastal district of Dakshina Kannada are apparently being misled by saffron outfits such as the RSS and Vishwa Hindu Parishad which propagate their hate campaigns, said Vinay Kumar Sorake, AICC Secretary.

He was speaking at the district level convention of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) wing of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) organised in the city on Friday in the run-up to the next Legislative Assembly elections.

Mr Sorake pointed out that majority of the accused in infamous homestay attack belonged to backward classes, who were misled by communal forces. “They are compelled by poverty to commit such acts.” he said.

He accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of trying to gain votes by dividing the society on the lines of religion, caste and language. The public should be made aware of the injustice and anti-people agenda that is being followed by BJP from the past four years, he said.

Delivering the presidential address, M C Venugopal, President of the KPCC's OBC wing, said that the Congress party had the backing and support of minorities and backward classes in the district. The State BJP Government is trying to weaken their support by limiting the income of Category 1 to Rs 1 lakh and that of Category 2 to Rs 44,500. This hampers the education of students belonging to those families. By denying them education, the BJP government does not want the students of backward families to come forward, thereby trying to weaken their support to Congress, he said.

He said that they would hold discussions with the Chief Minister to offer concessions to students belonging to Categories 1 and 2 to facilitate for their education.

He also said that the UPA government had released Rs 21.5 crore in 2005 with an additional Rs 2 crore from the state government to conduct a social and educational survey in the state. He alleged that even after seven years, the survey was being postponed by the BJP government, despite several notices from the Supreme Court. The social, educational survey is necessary to recognise the backward classes. The lethargy shown by BJP government proves that it does not care for the welfare of backward classes, he alleged.

The State government is also supporting corruption by not appointing a Lokayukta in the state. It hesitates to appoint one as 70 per cent of the ministers themselves are corrupt, he said.

He also said that the Congress was rallying for filling the vacant backlog posts of backward classes, along with reservation of posts for them in national and multi-national companies.

Vasanth Salian, former minister, also spoke on the occasion. Present at the convention were Ivan D'Souza, KPCC President, Vijaykumar Shetty, former MLA, Gulzar Banu, Mayor of Mangalore, P V Mohan, Mohiuddin Bawa and Suresh Ballal, among others.