Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which held a protest over the Kogilu issue on Monday, alleged that the Congress-led State government was providing housing for illegal immigrants from Bangladesh who had encroached government land in Kogilu.
“If even one house is given to Bangladeshi people at Kogilu, it will set a bad precedent. We will not allow the land belonging to Kannadigas to be given to Bangladeshis,” said R. Ashok, Leader of Opposition in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, speaking at the protest site.
Meanwhile, Minister for Housing B.Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan said, “A survey of those who lost their houses in Kogilu was complete, and it revealed most of them were locals.”
“Of the 167 houses demolished, only 13 families are from outside Karnataka- from Bihar, one family from Kerala, and a few from Tamil Nadu,” the Minister said. “There are 18 families from Karnataka, including from Yadgir, Kalaburagi, and Bidar. There are nearly 90 families who are voters of the Byatarayanapura Assembly constituency,” he said.
Mr. Ashok and BJP State president B.Y. Vijayendra also said that as per government records, 36 lakh poor people in the State had applied for houses and sites and were waiting for a house, even as the residents of Kogilu were being given unfair preference because of ‘minority appeasement’.
