Billava Community gives Sept 19 Deadline to appoint Srinivas Poojary District Minister In-charge of Udupi
Udupi: The members of Udupi district Billava associations strongly demanded to appoint the Port, Fisheries and Muzrai Minister Kota Srinivas Poojary as the district minister in-charge of Udupi District.
Speaking at a press meet held at the press club on Tuesday, September 17 Achutha Ameen senior leader of the Billava Community said that the BJP high command has given a chance to Kota Srinivas Poojary as a minister in the government. Poojary is known for his simplicity and not for any lobbying for a post. As a Billava leader, we have all celebrated his ministership in the district. Yesterday the chief minister had appointed district minister in-charge for all the districts. Kota Srinivas Poojary was given the post of in-charge minister of Dakshina Kannada district and Home minister Basavraj Bommai was appointed as the in-charge minister of Udupi district. There are rumors that the 5 elected MLA’s of Udupi district had given a letter to the Chief Minister not to appoint Poojary as the in-charge minister of Udupi district. If it is true the Billava associations are condemning the attitude of the BJP MLA’s, he said.
The Presently appointed district In-charge minister, Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai has a great responsibility of maintaining the law and order across the state. In between, he has been given additional responsibilities of Haveri district also. We are not against Bommai but Kota Srinivas Poojary is born and brought up in Udupi district. He knows all the problems of the district. The Billava leaders have been hurt by the decision of state BJP government. After the appointment of the minister in-charge, all the Billava leaders held a meeting at the Vishwanatha Temple in Katapadi and decided to meet all five MLA’s of Udupi district and ask them to convince the chief minister. We are giving the deadline to the government to appoint Poojary as the district In-charge minister of Udupi. If the government fails to appoint him, we will then decide our future course of action, he warned.
All the earlier governments also repeatedly tried to ignore the Billava community. In the last Congress government, Vinay Kumar Sorake also lost his ministership which had also hurt the Billava community. If the same continues, in coming days we will not sit silent. The Community will give the right answer at the right time, he said.
Former CMC president Kiran Kumar claimed that the resentment against Poojary, who was made minister, had prompted elected representatives to ignore the community. He said that the community would protest against such leaders. The community was happy when Poojary was made the minister. The dissatisfied MLAs had written letters to the chief minister against him, he added.
Billava leaders Naveen Ameen, B N Shanker Poojary, Praveen Poojary, Sudhakar D Ameen and others were present.