Hubballi, DHNS: Former chief minister and state JD(S) president H?D?Kumaraswamy has set Monday (August 1) afternoon as the deadline for the government to release around 180 farmers who were arrested in Navalgund after a violence there, and to withdraw cases booked against them.

On his way to Yamanur, Alagawadi and Navalgund, where police beat up farmers, Kumaraswamy told mediapersons at the airport here that JD(S)?MLAs would visit the areas affected and take a decision about the future course of action.

Coming down heavily on the government, he said that the police should have taken action against only those miscreants who were responsible for violence, but they behaved like monsters and mercilessly beat up innocent people, including women and the elderly.

“The government is trying to create fear, to suppress the Mahadayi agitation. District incharge Minister Vinay Kulkarni is behaving like a rowdy. Let Home Minister G?Parameshwara meet the people affected. The senior police officer who ordered the lathi charge on farmers should be arrested. Senior ministers Kagodu Thimmappa and Ramesh Kumar should also look into the problem being faced by people in the rural areas of the region,” he said.

“BJP leaders have not responded to farmers’ woes. The 17 MPs of BJP from the state should not behave like slaves of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but should pressure him to intervene to resolve the Mahadayi dispute,” the former chief minister said.

Kumaraswamy joined the protestors at Channamma Circle, along with MLC?Basavaraj Horatti, MLAs N?H?Konaraddi and A?S?Patil Nadahalli and expressed full support to the agitation.