Udupi (The Hindu): The Udupi district unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) staged a dharna in front of the Clock Tower here on Monday demanding the resignation of the Minister of State for Fisheries, Youth Services and Sports, Pramod Madhwaraj, for the assault and attempt to murder on Deputy Commissioner Priyanka Mary Francis and Assistant Commissioner Shilpa Nag at Kandlur.

They also accused Mr. Madhwaraj of shielding those who were involved in sand extraction at Kandlur and Halnadu and promoting sand extraction activities to the detriment of the interests of the district.

Earlier, addressing presspersons, Mattar Ratnakar Hegde, president of the district unit of the party, said that it was a known fact that sand from Udupi district was being transported to neighbouring districts and Kerala. The BJP had always been advocating an independent sand policy for the three coastal districts as they followed the traditional sand extraction methods. But the Congress government in the State had not done so.

There had been no attempt to assault the Deputy Commissioner and Assistant Commissioner in the history of the district since its formation. This was the first time that such an incident had taken place.

“We support both the officers for their courageous action against the sand mafia. When the government cannot protect its officers, the plight of the common people could well be imagined,” he said.

Mr. Hegde said that Mr. Madhwaraj was systematically encouraging the sand mafia.

According to the information provided by the local BJP leaders from both Kandlur and Halnadu, it was the Congress workers who were involved in the sand extraction in those places.

Already two Deputy Commissioners — R. Vishal and T. Venkatesh — were transferred from Udupi because they took a strong line on illegal sand extraction activities.

“After this incident, Mr. Madhwaraj has lost moral authority.

“He should resign as Minister or Chief Minister Siddaramaiah should drop him from the Ministry and appoint a new district in-charge Minister in his place,” Mr. Hegde said.

K. Raghupati Bhat, former MLA, Gitanjali Suvarna, Katapady Shankar Poojary, Zilla Panchayat members, K. Naveen Shetty, Hemanth Kumar, Ravi Amin, BJP leaders, were present.