CM appoints 8 Congress legislators including Abdul Jabbar, Ivan D'Souza as parliamentary secretaries
Bengaluru, Jan 6: Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy Sunday appointed 14 Congress MLAs as heads to boards and corporations after much delay.
He has also issued orders appointing eight Congress legislators as parliamentary secretaries.
However, Kumaraswamy has not made any appointments to the posts of deputy chairman of the planning commission, special representative in Delhi and political secretary to the chief minister, to which the Congress had suggested names of its legislators.
Out of the 19 boards and corporations for which the Congress had recommended its MLAs for posts of chairman, the chief minister Sunday issued orders of appointment for 14 of them.
According to coalition arrangement, both parties had decided to fill up posts of chairpersons to 30 boards and corporations of which 20 will be for the Congress and 10 for the ruling JD(S).
The JD(S) is yet to appoint its legislators as heads to boards and corporations and remaining one post of parliamentary secretary.
The MLAs appointed as head of boards and corporations include, B K Sangameshwar (Karnataka Land Army Corporation), B A Basavaraj (Karnataka Soaps and Detergents Limited), Munirathna (Karnataka Skill Development Corporation), Shivaram Hebbar (North West Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation), Lakshmi Hebbalkar (Mysore Minerals Ltd).
However, head posts for few boards and corporations have not been filled as recommended by the Congress, including Dr K Sudhakar for the State Pollution Control Board and Venkataramanaiah for the Karnataka Road Development Corporation Ltd (KRDCL).
JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy had clarified that Sudhakar's appointment was opposed as the Supreme Court guidelines had specified a certain qualification for the post.
Congress MLA Venkataramanaiah's appointment to KRDCL is said to have been opposed by Gowda's son and PWD Minister Revanna, stating that it came under his department.
The Congress had forwarded its list of 19 legislators for posts of chairman of boards and corporations to the chief minister soon after the cabinet rejig on December 22, but according to sources, the move had irked the JD(S) leadership as they were allegedly not consulted.
The Congress recommending some of its legislators as heads to boards and corporations that come under departments controlled by JD(S) ministers, had angered the regional party, leading to Kumaraswamy delaying the appointment.
JD(S) leaders and Kumaraswamy were also angered by the grand old party's move to appoint its MLA V Muniyappa as political secretary to the chief minister.
There were also reports that Congress MLAs had set a deadline of Monday evening, miffed over the delay in appointments to boards and corporations, failing which they had planned to meet on Tuesday to decide on the further course of action.
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Notices issued to Himachal conductor, driver for anti-Rahul Gandhi audio clip playing in govt bus
Shimla, Nov 30: After finding itself in soup over a CID enquiry on "missing samosas", the Himachal Pradesh government is again in a tight spot for issuing notices to a state roadways conductor and driver after an audio clip with defamatory remarks against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was allegedly played in their bus.
A man in his complaint to the Chief Minister's Office said defamatory words were used against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav and other leaders in an audio clip which was played in the Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) bus plying between Shimla and Sanjauli on November 5.
In a letter to the conductor and driver of the bus on November 25, the HRTC sought explanation from them. The letter went viral on the internet.
Talking to reporters on Friday, HRTC Managing Director Rohan Chand Thakur said a routine complaint was received from a customer after which a fact finding enquiry was initiated. The enquiry was closed as the allegations were found baseless.
However, the wording of the explanation sought could have been better and the officers have been verbally conveyed to improve in the coming times, he added.
The defamatory words were allegedly used in a debate being played in the audio clip.
Reacting sharply to the letter, BJP MLA from Dharamshala, Sudhir Sharma, said the government should appoint marshals to stop audios being played in buses.
"Such decisions of the government are damaging the reputation of the state government as well as the state," he added.
Earlier, the state CID department had ordered an internal enquiry on the samosas which were brought for Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu during a function and by mistake were served to the his security staff. A senior police official had termed the faux pas as an anti-CID and ant-Government act.
