Congress members held a protest rally in Sirsi in Uttara Kannada district on Monday, seeking the arrest of K.S. Eshwarappa, former Minister, who has been accused of corruption and driving Santosh Patil, a contractor to death.
Satish Jarkiholi, MLA, led the protest. They submitted a memorandum to the government before dispersing. He alleged that the Centre was complicit in the State Government’s corruption. He said, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power by promising corruption-free governance. But when serious allegations of corruption are being made, he is silent. Why has he not spoken about the allegations made by the contractor’s association, of 40% commission in government works?”
“Mr. Modi went around accusing the Siddharamaiah government as a 10% government in 2018. But he has not spoken a word about the 40% commission. He is silent despite knowing about all the irregularities here. That is because the Union Government is complicit in the sins of the State Government,” Satish Jarkiholi alleged. Mr. Modi is answerable to the people, he said.
“We should consider the fact that Mr. Modi was making the allegations of 10% commission, without any basis. But the 40% commission allegations were made by the registered association of contractors. The corrupt ways of the Government have claimed the lives of Santosh Patil, a young contractor and BJP leader. But Mr. Modi is not speaking about it, even though Santosh Patil had written a distress letter to him a few months before his death. Mr. Modi is not speaking about issues like price rise, increasing in poverty, and unemployment. This is highly condemnable,’’ Mr. Jarkiholi said.
“The Congress is not happy just with the resignation of Mr. Eshwarappa. We want him to be arrested and tried for the abetted suicide of Santosh Patil,” he added.
Leaders like Madhu Bangarappa, former legislators Satish Shail, Mankala Vaidya, Sharada Shetty, S.L. Ghotnekar, Prakash Hadimani, Bheemanna Naik, Sai Gaonkar, Shivanand Kadatol, Ravindra Naik, and party workers were present.
