Lawyers ransacks DC's office in Belagavi

BELAGAVI: The agitation of Belagavi Bar Association (BBA), which has staged indefinite dharna from Monday, boycotting the court proceedings across the district, turned violent on Tuesday with the hundreds of lawyers allegedly ransacked the DC's office.
Lawyers have been on dharna at the premises of court, demanding the establishment of Karnataka Administrative Tribunal (KAT) in Belagavi.Hundreds of lawyers rushed towards DC's office shouting slogans against the government and created pandemonium. Attempts of the police personnel to block lawyers outside the office were failed, due to their more strength.
Police personnel tried to block the lawyers outside the office by closing the gate. Irked with the police blockage, lawyers who were in more number, broke the gate and took entry into office. Police personnel including Market CPI Sanjeev Kumar tried hard to block lawyers by pushing the gate from other side but in vain.
Meanwhile, aggrieved lawyers vandalized flowerpots in the office and broken nameplate outside DC's chamber. They also broke glasses of the office doors. As DC N Jayaram was not in the office, they returned from the spot.
Speaking to the media persons, additional DC Praveenkumar and DCP Anupam Agarwal said legal action will be taken against the lawyers who took law into the hand and caused damage to the government property. CPI Sanjeev Kumar said cases will be booked against the lawyers, based on CCTV footages.
BBA members had planned to lay seize CM Siddaramaiah's home office Krishna in Bengaluru on 17 ^thNovember, but the programme was postponed following the CM's Delhi visit on that date. However, members began indefinite dharna from the same date, in the premises of court, boycotting the court proceedings.
In the month of July, advocates had sat on dharna in the premises of district in-charge minister Satish Jarkiholi's residence in Hanuman Nagar. Dharna had only withdrawn after the minister assured about bringing the issue to the notice of the CM.
According to the members of BBA, Belagavi is the biggest district with three revenue sub-divisions, two educational districts and eight district level courts. The district with over 50-lakh population has highest number government employees. Thus, government must establish KAT in Belagavi.