Congress in Karnataka gears up to face elections

TUMKUR: Gearing up to face assembly elections due next year, the Congress on Sunday alleged that the innocent educated youth belonging to Muslim religion were being targeted and are being arrested on wrong charges.
Taking Union finance minister P Chidambaram's word seriously that the Congress should try to get back its traditional vote-banks- minorities, backward classes and scheduled castes, the Congress convened a minorities convention here and resolved to lift economic and educational status of the minorities.
Attended by bigwigs of the party including KPCC G Parameshwara, opposition leader Siddaramaiah, Union minorities welfare minister K Rahman Khan among others, the convention also resolved to demand formation of a separate legislature committee for minority's affairs and reserve more seats for minority communities in the upcoming assembly elections.
Khan said that he would take up the issue with ministry of home affairs as educated youth were picked up by the police in the name of terrorism. "If anybody involved in the terrorist activities, they must seriously punished. But not for innocent people," he said.
The convention also demanded the government to take effective steps to reclaim the wakf properties which are under illegal occupation of the central and state governments, local bodies and other private occupants. Preferential allotment of civic amenity sites should be ensured for establishment of educational institutions managed by Muslim minority by appropriate legislation should be done, Parameshwara demanded.
Party workers from Kolar, Ramanagar, Chikkaballapur, Tumkur, Bangalore City and Bangalore Rural districts participated in the convention.