BANGALORE: The Karnataka Government on Thursday rejected the Justice B K Somashekar Commission report on attack on churches which took place when the BJP was in power in 2008.

Briefing reporters, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister TB Jayachandra said the report was rejected as the interim report submitted by the commission was totally contradictory with the recommendations of the final report.

The report had generated a lot of heat with allegations of political bias and was referred to the Law Department for its views. The department recommended its scrapping, Jayachandra said.

Determined to act tough against the perpetrators of the attack on churches, the Cabinet has decided to ask the Home Department to act on the nine recommendations of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) report.

The recommendations include compensation for victims of the attack, better protection for churches, effective measures to book strong cases against all the miscreants and also action against the police personnel who exceeded their mandate.

Legislators for Consumers’ Council

The Cabinet has approved the nomination of three MLAs and two MLCs for Karnataka State Consumers’ Rights Protection Council to make it more effective.

A novel programme to provide immediate medical aid for road accident victims in the ‘Golden Hour’, which is within 48 hours of the accident, has been approved by the cabinet.

The programme allows the government to provide a financial assistance up to `25,000 for immediate treatment of accident victims without any barriers on caste or income limit of the accident victim.

The programme, to be implemented in association with Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust, will have a list of hospitals which are mandated to treat the accident victims without seeking any payment at the time of admission of the accident victims.

New SEC

The State government has decided to appoint retired IAS officer Srinivasachari as the new State Election Commissioner.

Mangalore: VHP, Bajrang Dal decry rejection of church attacks report(DW)

Mangalore, Oct 17: Both Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP)and Bajrang Dal have condemned the state government’s move in rejecting the report of Justice Somashekara Commission of Inquiry which went into attacks on churches in the state in the year 2008.

"The people of the state have forgotten the bitter memories of these incidents which occurred six years ago. The government, by rejecting the report of the commission now, has made a fresh bid to disrupt peace in the society," they alleged.

They pointed out that crores of rupees have already been spent towards investigating these incidents through judicial inquiry by spending public funds.

"The rejection of the commission’s report has proved the extent to which the government trusts the judiciary. The state government, which has failed to implement development-oriented projects, has been showing undue interest in bringing into force anti-Hindu laws. Both VHP and Bajrang Dal stoutly oppose appointment of another commission for going into church attack incidents," said Jagadish Shenava, president of VHP local unit.