Puttur: Chaos at CM Siddaramaiah’s event; Over 11 people fall ill amid overcrowding
Puttur: Overcrowding at a public event attended by Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in Puttur led to a commotion, leaving more than 11 people unwell.
The incident occurred during the Ashoka Janamana–2025 programme organised at the Kombettu Grounds under the leadership of MLA Ashok Rai. Due to the presence of a crowd far exceeding the venue’s capacity, several attendees reportedly felt suffocated and fell ill.
The affected individuals were immediately shifted to the Puttur Taluk Government Hospital for treatment, according to local sources.
The event, marking the 13th year of the Janamana initiative, held during Diwali and involving the distribution of clothes, was organised by the Rai Estate Education and Charitable Trust under the direction of MLA Ashok Rai.
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Ex-minister Ramanath Rai hits out at BJP leader Ashoka for ‘irresponsible’ comments on KC Venugopal
Mangaluru: Congress leader and former minister B Ramanath Rai slammed BJP leader R Ashoka for calling AICC General Secretary KC Venugopal an agent of the party high command, and asked if the general secretary and other office-bearers in the BJP were commission agents too.
Rai, who addressed a press meet at the Congress office in the city on Friday, expressed fury over the recent comments of the BJP leader that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was presenting himself in a shameless manner in public life. Ashoka, who is also Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, had said that the Congress government had ‘broken every previous record on corruption-related controversies’.
“Ashoka has spoken with sheer ignorance and displays his lack of maturity, as he often does while facing the media. KC Venugopal has been working at organization of the party and it is unbecoming of Ashoka to criticize Venugopal as he did,” Rai told reporters.
“Being in a responsible position, how acceptable is it for Ashoka to pass disrespectful, random comments about another leader who also holds a responsible position? If KC Venugopal is indeed an agent of the party high command, what should we consider BJP leaders to be? Are they brokers?” he asked
Commenting on Ashoka’s allegations of corruption in the Congress government in Karnataka, Rai pointed out, “The KSRTC land was sold to private parties when he (Ashoka) was transport minister. We can find several such cases across the state, which need to be probed.”
The former minister, however, refused to comment on the incident that occurred at Mangaluru airport during CM Siddaramaiah’s visit to the city recently.
Former mayors Ashraf and Shashidhar Hegde, Congress activists Vishwas Kumar Das, Subhodaya Alva, Shabeer, Baby Kundar, Padmanabha, Nazeer Bajal and Prem were present.
