M’lore : Somasekhara panel report to be placed before cabinet

TNN

Mangalore/Udupi, 19 June 2013 : The Justice BKSomasekhara commission of inquiry into the incidents of attacks on churches and religious institutions in DakshinaKannadaand elsewhere in the state reported in 2008, will be placed before the cabinet for discussion.

Asked whether the Congress government will accept or reject the report, home minister KJ George said that there had been criticism that there was contradiction between the interim and the final reports. Hence, we will discuss it in the cabinet, he said.

 

 

The report, submitted by the commission during the last week of January in 2011, had caused uproar in the state legislative assembly with the then opposition leader Siddaramaiah demanding that a motion be allowed as there was contradiction between the interim and final reports. The opposition had also attacked the BJP government stating that the commission had ’worked’ to exonerate the government and organizations to which the government had an ideological soft corner for.

George told TOI: "There was no pressure from any quarters. We will not review the report, but we will discuss it."

Mangalore City North MLA JR Lobo who demanded that the entire episode be probed again in the light of the Somasekhara Commission not fixing accountability on any individual or organization, said there is still no clarity on who engineered the attacks. "The inquiry went on for two years and there was little tangible results coming out of it," Lobo told TOI.

Lobo said the commission is also silent on action that had to be initiated against police officials who entered places of religious worship when Christians resorted to protests after Hindu activists attacked the Adoration Monastery on Falnir Road.

Lobo agreed that finally it is for the cabinet to take a view on the commission report.