Mangaluru: Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel on Monday accused the ruling Janata Dal (Secular)-Congress coalition government of misusing State machinery for forcibly closing down schools, hotels, medical shops and business establishments for the Bharat Bandh in Dakshina Kannada and other parts of the State. The BJP will take legal action against the State government, which has acted against the law laid down by the Supreme Court, he said.

Talking to reporters, Mr. Kateel said that the State government has forced officials to close down schools and also stopped operation of KSRTC and private buses. In Mangaluru and Udupi, Mr. Kateel said, the Congress workers stopped autorickshaws taking people to hospitals and also stopped movement of ambulances.

The former district in-charge Minister B. Ramanath Rai went round different areas in Bantwal with police escort to forcibly close down pharmacies, Mr. Kateel said.

“We are not against parties calling for bandh. But the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) activists have misused the police to forcibly close down pharmacies and stop movement of ambulances. The coalition government has demeaned democracy by its conduct,” he said.

Mr. Kateel said that the coalition government should bear the losses suffered due to the bandh. The police should have arrested those involved in throwing stones at buses and on the vehicle of Bantwal MLA Rajesh Naik U. He asked the State government to take action against activists who he said assaulted BJP activists in Udupi. The police rightly intervened to prevent forcible closure of shops by Congress activists in Puttur, he said.

The way the Congress activists conducted themselves during the bandh led him to suspect that the faction of the Congress that was opposed to the coalition government had worked hard to destabilise the government, Mr. Kateel said.