Cong attacks BJP for 'brazen attempt' to destabilise Karnataka govt
Bengaluru, Jan 16: The Congress Wednesday slammed the BJP for its "brazen attempt" to destabilise the party's coalition government with JDS in Karnataka.
A political crisis is brewing in the state, where two Independent MLAs Tuesday withdrew support to the seven-month-old ministry amid trading of poaching charges by the ruling coalition and BJP.
The BJP's Karnataka MLAs have been camping at a resort in Haryana in an "effort to thwart any poaching attempt" by the ruling JDS-Congress coalition.
"The entire confusion has been created by the BJP. Was that really required? They did it brazenly throwing morality and ethics to the wind. It is shameful and disgusting," Karnataka Congress President Dinesh Gundu Rao said.
Blaming prime minister Narendra Modi and BJP national president Amit Shah for the current political crisis is Karnataka, Rao said the party under their aegis has become "anti-constitutional."
"The topic for discussion should not be the stability of our government but what BJP has reduced to under Modi and Amit Shah. The BJP today has become an anti-constitutional party.
"It is misusing the government machinery to threaten the MLAs and their rivals," he alleged.
Allaying fears over the stability of the Congress-JDS dispensation, Rao said, "All our MLAs are intact and nobody is going anywhere. They are all with us together."
The party has taken measures to address whatever grievances some people have but all the MLAs are very much in the party and nobody is going away, he added.
After two MLAs-- R Shankar and H Nagesh-- withdrew their support to the government Tuesday, rumour mill has been agog that the government's fall was imminent as many other Congress MLAs may follow suit and resign from their respective constituencies.
Despite claims that all the MLAs were with the party, Ramesh Jarkiholi and Umesh Jadhav remained incommunicado.
Congress spokesperson Subhash Agarwal said these two MLAs may not be in touch at this moment but they were very much in the party.
"Our party is stable. Those two MLAs withdrawing support is of no consequence. Numbers are in our favour and there is no threat to the government," he said.
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Another North Goa nightclub sealed; Kejriwal says corruption led to fire tragedy
Panaji (PTI): As part of a crackdown against tourist establishments violating laws and safety norms in the aftermath of the Arpora fire tragedy, Goa authorities on Saturday sealed a renowned club at Vagator and revoked the fire department NOC of another club.
Cafe CO2 Goa, located on a cliff overlooking the Arabian Sea at Vagator beach in North Goa, was sealed. The move came two days after Goya Club, also in Vagator, was shut down for alleged violations of rules.
Elsewhere, campaigning for local body polls, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said the fire incident at Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub at Arpora, which claimed 25 lives on December 6, happened because the BJP government in the state was corrupt.
An inspection of Cafe CO2 Goa by a state government-appointed team revealed that the establishment, with a seating capacity of 250, did not possess a no-objection certificate (NOC) of the Fire and Emergency Services Department. The club, which sits atop Ozrant Cliff, also did not have structural stability, the team found.
The Fire and Emergency Services on Saturday also revoked the NOC issued to Diaz Pool Club and Bar at Anjuna as the fire extinguishers installed in the establishment were found to be inadequate, said divisional fire officer Shripad Gawas.
A notice was issued to Nitin Wadhwa, the partner of the club, he said in the order.
Campaigning at Chimbel village near Panaji in support of his party's Zilla Panchayat election candidate, Aam Aadmi Party leader Kejriwal said the nightclub fire at Arpora happened because of the "corruption of the Pramod Sawant-led state government."
"Why this fire incident happened? I read in the newspapers that the nightclub had no occupancy certificate, no building licence, no excise licence, no construction licence or trade licence. The entire club was illegal but still it was going on," he said.
"How could it go on? Couldn't Pramod Sawant or anyone else see it? I was told that hafta (bribe) was being paid," the former Delhi chief minister said.
A person can not work without bribing officials in the coastal state, Kejriwal said, alleging that officers, MLAs and even ministers are accepting bribes.
