By IAMS,
Bangalore: Scores of Bangaloreans are chipping in with money and time to drum up support for the battle against corruption and to welcome social activist Anna Hazare to the city.
Hazare will land in Bangalore Friday and head to Nelamangala, about 40 km away to address farmers.
On Saturday he, along with Right to Information activist Arvind Kejriwal, lawyer Prashant Bhushan, social activist Swamy Agnivesh and former Indian Police Service officer Kiran Bedi, will address a public meeting in Bangalore.
“Over Rs.60,000 have already been donated by various people including labourers and auto-drivers,” a member of ‘Saaku’ (Kannada for ‘Enough’), an organization active in anti-graft campaign in Karnataka, told IANS Thursday.
Saaku is helping organise the Saturday public meeting at the National College grounds in south Bangalore and the donations are to meet part of expenses for it.
The organization opened the account ‘Corruption Saaku’ (Enough of corruption) in a private bank about ten days back and sought donation though cheques or e-transfer.
It is also using the net and cell phones to spread its campaign.
A call to a toll-free cell number it has listed on the site gives out the message to turn the mobile into a weapon to fight corruption and the voice against graft will reach the prime minister.
Hazare, Kejriwal and Bhushan along with senior advocate Shanti Bhushan and Karnataka Lokayukta (ombudsman) N. Santosh Hegde are civil society members of the 10-member panel set up to draft the Lokpal bill to fight graft at the national level.
This will be the first visit of Hazare to Karnataka after the setting up of the Lokpal bill draft panel, following his five-day fast in New Delhi.