Congress-JD-S panel okays Karnataka cabinet expansion soon
Bengaluru, Sep 1 : Karnataka would expand cabinet in September third week and appoint heads of boards and corporations soon, said senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Friday.
"Congress President Rahul Gandhi has agreed to the cabinet expansion in September third week and the appointment of chairman of boards and corporations across the state," Siddaramaiah told reporters here.
The decision to expand the cabinet was taken at the meeting of the 5-member coalition coordination and monitoring committee of the alliance partners.
With Siddaramaiah as the committee's chairman, Chief Minister H.D Kumaraswamy, Deputy Chief Minister G. Parameshwara and Congress general secretary and the party's state unit in-charge K.C. Venugopal are the other members.
JD-S general secretary Danish Ali is the convenor of the panel.
"The Congress has six ministerial berths to induct while the JD-S has one post to fill in the 34-member state cabinet," said Siddaramaiah.
Kumaraswamy met Gandhi in New Delhi on Thursday and urged him to allow his party's state unit to expand the cabinet as elections to the urban local bodies across the state was held on Friday.
"The committee has agreed to appoint chairpersons to 30 boards and corporations, with 20 of them from the Congress and 10 from the JD-S," said the former Congress Chief Minster.
As all the party's newly elected legislators cannot be made ministers due to the ceiling, Siddaramaiah said some of them would be made chairmen of the state-runs boards and corporations.
"Ad hoc or arbitrary" transfer of officials, including IAS and IPS officers within in the first 100 days of the post-poll alliance government also figured prominently in the 2-hour long third meeting of the panel.
"We have told the chief minister to ensure the polices and programmes of the previous Congress government be continued in this fiscal as it's a coalition partner in the state government," added Siddaramaiah.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Agra man arrested for harassing, touching inappropriately Czech tourist visiting Taj Mahal
Agra, Apr 6 (PTI): A man was arrested for allegedly harassing and touching inappropriately a tourist from the Czech Republic visiting the Taj Mahal, police said on Sunday.
The alleged incident occurred on April 3 and the arrest was made after a thorough investigation, they said.
In a written complaint at the Tourist police station, the woman alleged that she was "touched inappropriately and harassed" while walking along the Shamshan Ghat Road around 1 pm, they added.
The police registered a case and began a probe, deploying multiple teams to nab the accused.
Assistant Commissioner of Police (Taj Security) Syed Areeb Ahmed said, "A case was registered on the complaint of the foreign woman. Several teams were deployed to search for the accused. (Footage from) several CCTV cameras covering the area was scanned. After investigation, the accused Karan Rathore was arrested on Sunday."
The woman has identified Rathore as the accused and he has been taken into custody, the officer said.
