With the incidents of molestation of women on the New Year's eve in Bengaluru making global headlines, an embarrassed Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday assured the Indian diaspora that the city was safe for women.
Speaking at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) - 2017, Siddaramaiah said, “The recent unpleasant incidents in Bengaluru have been viewed very seriously. Women safety is top priority for us. Assault on women is taken seriously by the state government. My government is committed to bringing to book those who attack women. We are also working on increasing the rate of conviction."
Taking everyone by surprise, Siddaramaiah,who shared the dais with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the second day of the event urged the Union government to extend the deadline for Non-resident Indians (NRIs) and Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) to exchange and/or deposit high denomination specified bank notes in the Reserve Bank of India or State Bank of India till December 31, 2017. He mentioned the resolution passed by the Global Convention of the Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) held in Bengaluru on January 6.
However, in his reply, Modi only chose to thank the NRIs for their support to the government policies to tackle corruption and rued the fact that the government efforts against black money were being portrayed as anti-people by some political cronies.