Karnataka cabinet expansion on August 20
Bengaluru, Aug 17: Having run the government with a one man cabinet RPT a one man cabinet for 22 days,Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa finally got the go-ahead on Saturday from BJP national president Amit Shah to undertake the exercise on August 20.
"BJP legislative party meeting will be held on Tuesday at 10 AM at the conference hall, Vidhan Soudha. The cabinet expansion will take place on the same day post noon," the Chief Minister tweeted.
Before leaving for Delhi on Thursday, Yediyurappa had said he would hold talks with the party president Amit Shah and finalise the much awaited expansion of his cabinet.
BJP sources told PTI that there was a possibility that 13 ministers would take the oath Tuesday against the approved strength of 34 and that the rest of the positions would be filled later.
The delay was because the party was not able to finalise the names.
Earlier too, Yediyurappa had been to Delhi, but nothing could be ironed out.
The major challenge, party sources said, was the caste equation as there are 39 Lingayat MLAs, to which the chief minister also belongs.
Lingayats are the biggest support base for the BJP.
The Lingayats are followed by the Vokkaligas, the most prominent faces among whom are former R Ashok, Dr C N Ashwath Narayan, C T Ravi and S R Vishwanath.
The party has also to give space to MLAs from the Dalit community, Scheduled Tribes, Brahmins and MLAs from other Backward Communities.
The 17 disqualified MLAs belonging to the previous Congress-JD(S) coalition government might also have to be accommodated in the government.
The Congress and the JD(S) had been flaying the BJP for the inordinate delay in cabinet expansion and accused Yediyurappa of running a one man government.
Yediyurappa was sworn as Chief Minister for a fourth time on July 26.
He alone took the oath succeeding H D Kumaraswamy three days after the Congress-JDS coalition government crumbled under the weight of a rebellion by a big chunk of its lawmakers, when it lost the motion of confidence in the state assembly.
On July 29, the BJP government in Karnataka won the confidence motion, ending the month-long political turbulence in the state.
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Drug peddler's property worth Rs 1 crore attached in Srinagar
Srinagar (PTI): Property worth Rs 1 crore belonging to a notorious drug peddler was on Saturday attached in Jammu and Kashmir's Srinagar, police said.
A double-storey house on eight marlas of land situated at Wantpora Eidgah, belonging to Basit Bilal Dar, a notorious drug peddler, valued at approximately Rs 1 crore, a police spokesperson said.
He said Dar is involved in two cases registered under various sections of the NDPS Act.
During investigation, it was established that the accused had acquired the said property through illicit proceeds generated from drug trafficking activities, the spokesperson said.
Consequently, the property was attached under the provisions of the NDPS Act. The attachment proceedings were conducted in the presence of the two independent witnesses, strictly in accordance with the prescribed legal procedures, he said.
As per the attachment order, the owner has been restrained from selling, leasing, transferring, altering, or creating any third-party interest in the property till further orders, the spokesperson added.
