Had met Governor to get clarification, not to complain against CM, says K S Eshwarappa
Bengaluru, Apr 7: Defending his meeting with the Governor against Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa's alleged direct interference in the affairs of his department, Karnataka Rural Development Minister K S Eshwarappa on Wednesday said it was to seek clarification and not to complain.
Rejecting speculations about change in CM, he said Yediyurappa was his leader and loyalty to the party was utmost important for him.
"I don't want to talk much on this issue as our national leaders are intervening into it and I'm confident that they will resolve it.. as per Transaction of Business Rules 1977, CM cannot directly handle things.
The CM can allocate money to departments but distributing it is left to the department," Eshwarappa said.
Speaking to reporters here, the minister said he had gone to get clarification regarding this from Governor Vajubhai Vala, who has a long experience of 17-18 years as the Finance Minister in Gujarat.
"I had gone to get clarification, not to complain.
Neither have I given, nor I will give any complaint.. as CM directly sanctioned money (to MLAs), to clarify regarding this I had gone to the Governor..
Other than this there is nothing," he said, as he termed as 'wrong' reports of him complaining against Yediyurappa.
Eshwarappa, also a former state BJP president, on March 31 had met and submitted a five-page letter to the Governor on "serious lapses and authoritarian ways of running the administration" by the CM.
Subsequently, party General Secretary incharge of the state Arun Singh had disapproved of Eshwarappa's conduct of going to the Governor, while several Ministers and party legislators had strongly backed the Chief Minister.
Ruling out any indiscipline on his part, Eshwarappa said he has neither publicly criticised nor complained against the CM till this moment.
Asked about his letters to party leaders like national General Secretary C T Ravi, he said, "they are our party leaders, instead of Ravi should I give it to JD(S) patriarch H D Deve Gowda or state Congress chief D K Shivakumar?"
Clarifying that he has only brought things to the notice of leaders who are part of "BJP family" and has not complained seeking any action, the senior Minister said he can never go against the interest of the party which is like mother for him.
Noting that he had also written to the Chief Minister expressing concerns regarding funds directly being sanctioned without bringing to his notice, Eshwarappa however did not wish to respond directly to a question whether he will meet Arun Singh, who will be visiting the state, regarding the controversy.
".. if possible will meet, if not no," he added.
Eshwarappa, in his letter to the Governor had listed out instances like the Chief Minister sanctioning huge funds on the request of MLAs to the tune of Rs 774 crore under RDPR Department ignoring him, also works worth Rs 460 crore was sanctioned by bypassing him.
Responding to another query, Eshwarappa said there is no question of change in CM, and Leader of Opposition in the assembly Siddaramaiah doesn't have any work, so he was uttering such things.
"Siddaramaiah is an expert in cooking up stories and he should be awarded Padmashree or Jnanapeeta or nobel prize for it, like they give it to poets, writers and literary figures," he added.
Siddaramaiah had recently said that RSS and BJP national General Secretary (organisation) B L Santosh were behind Eshwarappa and Basanagouda Patil Yatnal (another BJP MLA who has been openly critical of Yediyurappa), with a plan to change the Chief Minister.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
