Mangaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah who was supposed to visit Dakshina Kannada on Sunday, cancelled his visit at the last minute. Sources said that he had come to the Bengaluru Airport, but dropped the plans, stating health reasons. 

According to the actual schedule, CM was supposed to come to the city to attend various programs. Among there, inauguration of computer centre at Sathya Sai Vihar in Bantwal, participate in the silver jubilee celebrations of Dharmasthala Yoga and Naturopathy College at Ujire and also at the valedictory function of Vishwa Tuluvara Habba in Mangaluru during his Dakshina Kannada visit.

It’s however learnt that the Chief Minister cancelled his plans to attend Vishwa Tuluvera Parba, as the festival faced a lot of criticisms. Earlier, former Union Minister Veerappa Moily, who was supposed to inaugurate it too skipped the festival, due to the opposition from a section of people.

Environmentalists warned to stage protest, if Moily inaugurated the festival, as he was the chief architect behind the Yettinahole project. On the same lines, Chief Minister Siddaramaih too did not participate. Apart from this, the venue of the festival too faced opposition, as there was a court case against Sahyadri college, which allegedly dumped loads of mud to the Nethravathi River to construct playground. The festival too was hosted at the same venue.

Besides, sources also said that some Muslim organizations had planned to protest against the CM over the recent developments in the city, which apparently led the CM to change plans.

In addition to it, Chief Minister Siddaramaih who was supposed to visit Dharmasthala for the foundation stone laying ceremony of Naturopathy College, Ujire too faced an opposition. According to the Nagarika Seva Trust, Dharmasthala was given free land from the government to develop it as a park. However, the management instead constructed a college, the trust members said.