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.
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Another North Goa nightclub sealed; Kejriwal says corruption led to fire tragedy
Panaji (PTI): As part of a crackdown against tourist establishments violating laws and safety norms in the aftermath of the Arpora fire tragedy, Goa authorities on Saturday sealed a renowned club at Vagator and revoked the fire department NOC of another club.
Cafe CO2 Goa, located on a cliff overlooking the Arabian Sea at Vagator beach in North Goa, was sealed. The move came two days after Goya Club, also in Vagator, was shut down for alleged violations of rules.
Elsewhere, campaigning for local body polls, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said the fire incident at Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub at Arpora, which claimed 25 lives on December 6, happened because the BJP government in the state was corrupt.
An inspection of Cafe CO2 Goa by a state government-appointed team revealed that the establishment, with a seating capacity of 250, did not possess a no-objection certificate (NOC) of the Fire and Emergency Services Department. The club, which sits atop Ozrant Cliff, also did not have structural stability, the team found.
The Fire and Emergency Services on Saturday also revoked the NOC issued to Diaz Pool Club and Bar at Anjuna as the fire extinguishers installed in the establishment were found to be inadequate, said divisional fire officer Shripad Gawas.
A notice was issued to Nitin Wadhwa, the partner of the club, he said in the order.
Campaigning at Chimbel village near Panaji in support of his party's Zilla Panchayat election candidate, Aam Aadmi Party leader Kejriwal said the nightclub fire at Arpora happened because of the "corruption of the Pramod Sawant-led state government."
"Why this fire incident happened? I read in the newspapers that the nightclub had no occupancy certificate, no building licence, no excise licence, no construction licence or trade licence. The entire club was illegal but still it was going on," he said.
"How could it go on? Couldn't Pramod Sawant or anyone else see it? I was told that hafta (bribe) was being paid," the former Delhi chief minister said.
A person can not work without bribing officials in the coastal state, Kejriwal said, alleging that officers, MLAs and even ministers are accepting bribes.
