Padayatra: Full steam ahead!

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru, Jan. 5 Despite the State Government imposing night curfew and week-end curfew till January 19, the Congress has decided to go ahead with its proposed 175 km 10-day padayatra from Mekedatu to Bengaluru starting from January 9 by taking all precautionary measures advised by both the Union & state governments in the wake of the sudden spike in Corona and Omicron cases in the last one week.

Disclosing this at a joint news conference here on Wednesday, Leader of Opposition in State Legislative Assembly Siddaramaiah and KPCC President D.K.Shivakumar said since they have the experience of ruling at the Centre and in the State for a long time, they are bound to act responsibly. “We do not intend to violate the safety protocol or take the law into our hands. We will follow safety standards such as wearing masks, adopting social distancing and use of hand gloves and sanitisers”.

They said the restrictions were imposed on Tuesday but the Congress had planned the padayatra last month and had already made arrangements in this regard.

“As many as 25 BJP MPs have been elected from Karnataka but none of them have urged the Prime Minister to implement the Mekedatu irrigation project. The BJP government at the Centre has always adopted a step-motherly attitude towards Karnataka on major irrigation projects,’’ he said.