Southern States - Karnataka   

Police to blame for Hiriyur riots, says panel

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE DEC. 26. The Joint House Committee report has blamed the police for the death of two people in the police firing at Hiriyur in Chitradurga on July 25, 2002, and the violent incidents that occurred in the town.

The incidents took place when a procession was taken out in protest against the move to set up a 20 MW biomas power project by R.K. Power Jain at Babbur and Maklurahalli of Hiriyur taluk. Property worth lakhs of rupees was damaged during the violence.

The committee member and MLC, V. R. Sudharshan, tabled the report in the Legislative Council today. The report said that an adequate police force was not present in the town to control the mob. The district police failed to hold meetings between the people and the power company representatives to resolve differences over the biomass project. Police failed to judge the real motive of the organisers of the procession, and the district administration deployed only 250 policemen as a security measure. The violence could have been averted if sufficient police personnel had been posted, the report added.

Neither the Superintendent of Police (SP) nor the DySP was present during the police firing, it said, and added that the SP, Murugan, was solely responsible for the mob fury.

The police registered cases against innocent people, the report said and suggested that the Government withdraw these cases. However, it also said that police firing was inevitable in such circumstances.

The former minister and JD(S) leader, D. Manjunath, and other local leaders had been opposing the project on environmental grounds. However, the Government cleared several biomass power projects to generate 610 MW power, the report added.

It ruled out any danger to the environment from the project. It also did not see any threat to the underground water resource in the taluk.

The report said the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) in the district did not make efforts to create awareness about the eco-friendliness of the project.

The Karnataka State Pollution Control Board and the EPAs should function effectively and create awareness among the people to avoid protests against such projects in the future, it added.

A compensation of Rs. 1 lakh was paid to the families of Shivanna and Veeranna, who were killed in the firing. The report recommended that the Government increase the compensation for the families of the victims and those injured during the violence.

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