Panchamasali community to stage protest during winter session of Karnataka legislature

Sri Basava Jaya Mrityunjaya swamiji of Kudalasangama has said that the protest will be held on December 10, 2024.
| Photo Credit: FILE PHOTO

The Panchamasali reservation agitation committee will hold a protest in front of the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha in Belagavi during the winter session of the Karnataka Assembly. The announcement was made by Sri Basava Jaya Mrityunjaya swamiji of Kudalasangama, honorary president of the committee, in Chikkodi on December 3.

The protest will be held on December 10. Earlier, the protest was planned for the first day of the session on December 9. The seer asked members of the Panchamasali community to join the protest.

“Some political leaders have said that they would not join the protest. It is alright. We are not worried about who will join and who will not,” the seer said.

He said that the community had been demanding recategorisation from 3B to 2A in the Other Backward Classes group, for over a decade. “Successive governments have failed to fulfil our demand. But we will not stop the agitation. We will fight till get what we want,” he said.

He told reporters that over 5,000 tractors and thousands of farmers and Panchamasali community members would participate in the protest. “No attempt to stop us will deter us. We will go ahead with the protest even if we are to be arrested,” he said. “The government of Karnataka will be directly responsible for any untoward incident,” he said.

“We have held protests earlier. We held hunger strikes and protest rallies during the tenure of B. S. Yediyurappa, Basavaraj Bommai, Jagadish Shettar ad others. They all promised to fulfil our demands, but in vain,” he said.

“Despite several assurances, the government has not fulfilled our demands. That is why we are forced to continue the agitation. We have held separate meetings with community leaders, MLAs, lawyers and others. A pre-protest meeting will be held in Belagavi on December 7 to chalk out the details of the protest,” the seer said.