In a short notice “public auction” conducted at the landmark Kittur Chennamma Circle in Hubballi on Thursday, Members of Parliament from the State were auctioned at prices as low as ₹ 1 to a maximum of ₹ 5.
The “public action” was arranged by Kannada activist and founder of Kannada Chalavali Vatal Paksha Vatal Nagaraj in protest against the apathy of the Members of Parliament from the State towards the sufferings of the flood displaced and affected people of North Karnataka and also the development of the region.
The “auction” call for Rajya Sabha member from Karnataka and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman began at ₹ 1 and a person by name N.H. Patil made a successful bid at ₹ 5. Similarly, Member of Parliament from Koppal Karadi Sanganna was “auctioned” for a successful bid of ₹ 1 made by a boy.
However, the others, including Union Ministers Pralhad Joshi and D.V. Sadananda Gowda, MPs G.M. Siddeshwar, Ananthkumar Hegde, Tejasvi Surya and B.Y. Raghavendra, remained “unsold” as no bidders came forward to buy them.
Earlier, addressing presspersons before the “auction”, Mr. Vatal Nagaraj said that the protest was aimed at reminding the Members of Parliament about their duties which they had forgotten.
Although the northern districts of the State had frequently experienced downpour and floods, the MPs from Karnataka had failed to impress upon the Union government to release the requisite funds for relief. “Such has been the apathy of the Union government and the Prime Minister towards the plight of the people of North Karnataka that none of the top leaders from the Centre thought it right to visit the flood-affected areas in the State,” he said.
