'I am not rebel but loyal', says Karnataka minister K S Eshwarappa
Mysuru, Apr 2: Faced with allegations of revolting against Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa and the BJP, state minister K S Eshwarappa on Friday asserted that he was never a rebel but loyal to the party.
Eshwarappa, also a former state BJP president, had come under attack for complaining to Governor Vajubhai Vala about Yediyurappa's alleged interference in the affairs of his department.
"I am not rebel but loyal.I have always been loyal from the beginning and will never rebel against my party," Eshwarappa told a press conference here.
He, however, insisted that his outrage was only to seek justice.
Clarifying his position, Eshwarappa said Rs 1,299 crore pertaining to his department was sanctioned, including Rs 65 crore to the Bengaluru Urban District Panchayat, without his knowledge.
"Without my knowledge Rs 65 crore was sanctioned for the Bengaluru Urban district Panchayat.Further, Rs 774 crore was released in the first instalment and Rs 460 crore in the second instalment. So altogether Rs 1,299 crore was released, which violates the Business Transaction Rules," the minister alleged.
Stating that he wrote to party leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Chief Minister against the violation, Eshwarappa stopped the release of grants.
However, the Chief Minister wrote to the Principal Secretary directing him to release the funds "and later inform the minister," Eshwarappa alleged.
Accordingly, the Principal Secretary followed the order only to cancel it later after Eshwarappa told him that this violated the business transaction rules.
The minister clarified there was nothing personal with Yediyurappa and added that he had to flag the issue to prevent setting up a new precedent for other chief ministers to bypass the ministers concerned and release grants.
To a question, Eshwarappa said the Chief Minister seems to have been misled by a set of people who had in the past misguided him to rebel against the BJP and form the Karnataka Janata Party.
Eshwarappa yesterday drew flak from the BJP and some ministers who said his act of complaining to the governor against the chief minister was 'not right'.
BJP national general secretary in-charge of Karnataka Arun Singh has said Eshwarappa should not have written such a letter, being a senior leader and a 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.
