Congress protests against price rise and corruption in more than 300 areas in Bengaluru

The Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) held silent protests against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led state government at more than 300 places across Bengaluru on Monday, January 23. The protest was held as part of the party’s ‘Stop Corruption, Save Bengaluru’ campaign against the alleged corruption by the BJP government. Senior party leaders like former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar and All India Congress Committee’s general secretary, Randeep Singh Surjewala, and other Congress leaders were present at a protest at Trinity Circle.

Congress leaders raised issues regarding the 40% commission for contractors’ scam and infrastructural failures in the city such as the quality of roads and poor garbage management in the city.  “As an opposition party, we cannot just sit back and watch all this. It is our responsibility to protect the city, state and people and make the government work. So many scams have been reported in the media, have we received answers to any of them? I know the number of problems that a common household faces. Crude oil has become very cheap in the international market, so why are the prices of petrol and diesel not being lowered? They will not lower the prices as long as it benefits them, they do not care for what happens to a common person,” said NA Haris, MLA of Shanthi Nagar constituency. 

“We are standing here on the footpath and observing a silent protest without causing a nuisance to the traffic and in a systematic way,” he further said. The protest at Trinity Circle had caused a massive traffic jam at the MG road and Trinity junction as the Prajadhwani yatra bus carrying Siddaramaiah, DK Shivakumar and Randeep Singh Surjewala arrived.

Reacting to the protest, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said that the party which was responsible for the closure of Lokayukta was giving lessons about them. “What moral right do they have? They had closed it to support corruption. They had joined hands with corruption and ran a government. Now they are staging a protest to cover all the wrongdoings they have done,” he said.