Asnotikar to stage dharna over medical college

Fisheries Minister Anand Asnotikar said on Friday that he would hold a dharna in front of the chief minister’s home office Krishna if the next State Cabinet meeting did not succeed in sanctioning a medical college for Karwar.

Asnotikar, who hails from Karwar, has blamed Primary and Secondary Education Minister Visvesvara Hegde Kageri on  shifting the proposed medical college from Karwar, to his home constituency in Sirsi. Asnotikar, who also holds the Science and Technology portfolio, was keen to have the State government set up planetariums in all city corporations in the State.

Over his controversial statements calling for a merger of Karwar with Goa, Asnotikar did a backtrack during a press conference in Bangalore. He claimed that he always stood for the integrity of Karnataka and said that he had only sought to highlight the need for taking steps for the development of Karwar and had never sought its merger with neighbouring Goa.