Show of strength at Lingayat community rally in Karnataka

Hubballi, Feb 19: Former Karnataka Minister, Mr PC Siddanagoudar said here that more than 1.5 lakh members of the Lingayat Panchamasali Community from the North Karnataka region will take part in the rally to be held in Bengaluru on February 21 to demand the 2A status of the reservation to the community.

Addressing media here today, Mr Siddanagoudar said that after the rally the community leaders will meet the Chief Minister, Mr BS Yediyurappa and Submit a memorandum demanding immediate inclusion of the Panchamasali’s of the Lingayat community under the 2A Group to make them eligible for reservation in Education and Employment.

Mr Neelakanta Asooti, General Secretary of the National Lingayat Panchamasali Trust and former Chairman of the Karnataka Milk Producers Federation, Dharwad said that the Panchamasali”s will take the fight for reservation to the logical end in the Gandhian way. He said that once flourishing, the members of the Panchamasali Group who are mainly Peasants have now become peasant workers and economically poor due to declining agricultural income because of increased cost in Fertilizers, Seeds, Floods and droughts resulting in continuous crop failures Etc.

Mr Asooti said that added to the problem is also the increased Division of Families reducing the amount of their land holdings and increasing Mechanisation in the field of agriculture creating lesser work. As a Result more and more peasant members of the community have become unemployed, He said and added that if the demands are not met, Qte we will not hesitate to go on fast unto death Unqte.

Mr Prabhanna Hunasikatti, President of the National Trust of the Lingayat Panchamasali Community said that community members from Dharwad, Bagalkot and Vijayapura will also join the Padayatra in Bengaluru. He claimed that several Political and Farmer leaders and many heads of Lingayat Mutts have extended their full support for the reservation.

Meanwhile, Mr Gurunatha Ullikashi, President Karnataka Samata Sena and Mr.Venkatesha Mestri, former Mayor, Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation, speaking to newsmen on behalf of the 101 member federation of the Karnataka State Scheduled Cast Committee demanded here today that the percentage of the reservation for the Scheduled Cast communities be increased to 35 percent from the present 15 percent within a month. If not, the federation would launch a nationwide agitation, they said.