Karnataka CM, 6 ministers face criminal cases: Poll watchdogs
Bengaluru, June 29: Seven Karnataka Ministers, including Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, face criminal charges ranging from forgery to causing death by negligence, said two election watchdogs in a report here on Friday.
The report by the Karnataka Election Watch and Delhi-based Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) was based only analysis of the poll affidavits belonging to 26 of 27 cabinet ministers, save Women and Child Development Minister Jayamala, the lone woman minister, whose affidavit was not available, ADR said.
It said that seven (27 per cent) of the 26 ministers, including Kumaraswamy have declared criminal cases against them, while four ministers, including him, face serious criminal charges.
The other six ministers are Venkatrao Nadagouda (Animal Husbandry and Fisheries), B.Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan (Food and Civil Supplies), D.K. Shivakumar (Water Resources and Medical Education), D.C. Thammanna (Transport), N. Mahesh (Primary and Secondary Education) and Ramesh L. Jarkiholi (Municipalities and Local Bodies).
Kumaraswamy faces serious criminal charges, including forgery for the purpose of cheating, causing disappearance of evidence, and other charges relating to criminal breach of trust.
Twenty five of the 26 ministers are crorepatis, as per the asset declarations in their poll affidavits, with Shivakumar being the richest with total assets worth Rs 840 crore.
Kumaraswamy is also among the top five ministers with highest declared assets and income, with total assets worth over Rs 160 crore.
Two of the ministers have only studied up to class 8 - with Higher Education Minister G.T. Deve Gowda being one of them.
A dozen of the 26 ministers have declared their educational qualifications to be between class 8 and 12, and 14 are graduates and above.
In a pre-poll survey by the election watchdogs, of the 2,654 candidates who were in fray for the state election, 883 were crorepatis and 645 had criminal cases against them.
The BJP candidates were found to be with the highest number of criminal cases against them, with 83 (37 per cent) of the 223 in fray having criminal cases against them and 58 others (26 per cent) having serious criminal cases against them including murder, attempt to murder and kidnapping etc.
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Rahul Gandhi welcomes govt's 'sudden' caste census decision, wants timeline for its implementation
New Delhi, Apr 30 (PTI): Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said he welcomes the government's "sudden" decision to include caste enumeration in the forthcoming census after "11 years of opposing it" but it should give a timeline for its implementation.
His comments came within hours of the government announcing that caste enumeration would be included in the forthcoming census exercise in a "transparent" manner.
Addressing a press conference here, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said, "We support this (government's decision) completely but we want a timeline. We want to know by when it will be done."
Welcoming the Narendra Modi dispensation's "sudden" decision to include caste enumeration in the census exercise after "11 years of opposing it", he said, "This is the first step and Telangana is a model for caste census."
While reiterating the demand for removing the 50 per cent cap on reservations, Gandhi said funds should be allocated for the caste census.
"We want people's census, not bureaucrats' census," he added.
Opposition parties, including the Congress, have been demanding a nationwide caste census, making it a major election issue. Some states like Bihar, Telangana and Karnataka have conducted such surveys.
Announcing the decision taken by the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday said the census comes under the purview of the Centre, but some states have done caste enumeration in the name of surveys "non-transparently" which has created doubts in the society.
