More cops ended lives during BJP regime in state, says Siddaramaiah

Bengaluru: Under siege by the opposition on the suicide of DySP M.K. Ganapati, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah claimed on Saturday that more policemen had committed suicide during BJP rule in the state.

“Going by the National Crime Records Bureau 24 policemen committed suicide in 2007, and 17  in 2012. The highest number of police committed suicide during BJP rule,”  he asserted, participating in an  interaction with districts journalists here.

Moreover,  he said suicide was a “ cowardly act” and  quoted a Chennai High Court judgment which said, “suicide is not a solution to the problem, it is a cowardly act of a person,” to underline his point.

The Chief Minister regretted that although his government had come out with several pro-people programmes, there wasn’t enough publicity for them and promised to  revamp the  Information and Publicity department over the next two years to correct this.

“Compared to other state governments, I am far behind in using publicity. Nowadays marketing is all important. As I hold the information department portfolio I will look into this,” he said.

On extending night life in the city, Mr Siddaramaiah said the government would take an appropriate decision after considering the pros and cons. “We’ll have to see if we can extend it without affecting  law and order or public peace,” he said.

When it was pointed out that the  Devadasi system continued to flourish in some parts of north Karnataka with even children of these women being lured into it  despite the ban, the Chief Minister  said the government had decided to open residential schools in every hobli to provide free education to the children of Devadasis.

The journalists present raised issues like the delay in implementing  Article 371 J in Hyderabad Karnataka and  the malnutrition, which still prevails in parts of the state.