Bengaluru, May 20: Denying permission to leader of opposition Siddaramaiah's proposed video conference meeting with district officials to obtain information regarding measures taken for COVID-19 management, the B S Yediyurappa- led government in Karnataka has said that there is no such provision.
Siddaramaiah, calling it an attempt to restrict opposition parties, demanded that he be allowed to hold the meeting to gather information, failing which he was ready for any kind of parliamentary or constitutional confrontation to safeguard the public interest.
"Leader of Opposition can obtain administrative information by writing letters to department heads, deputy commissioners and other government officials, but there is no provision for the leader of opposition to hold a meeting of officials," the Chief Secretary has said in a letter to Siddaramaiah, citing earlier circulars.
The letter addressed to the LoP which has approval from the Chief Minister, was in response to Siddaramaiah's letter to the Chief Secretary a couple of days ago, asking him to direct Deputy Commissioners, Police Superintendents, and Health Officers of various districts to attend the zoom meeting and provide information.
In response to the Chief Secretary's letter, Siddaramaiah on Thursday shot off a missive to the CM urging to allow him hold the virtual meeting.
"If the government was alive and if it had belief in the democratic system it would have shared information immediately after a letter by the leader of opposition, but how to get answers from a government that has lost its senses and spirit," he said.
Noting that he has written 12 letters to the government after the second wave of COVID began, the Congress Legislature Party leader asked, "have you responded to even one of them? Isn't it the height of irresponsibility?"
Further accusing the government of having 'failed' in managing the COVID crisis by pointing to deaths due to shortage of beds, oxygen, medicines among others, he said, at such a time if we try to gather information on measures taken by the government, it is being denied.
"Your thinking is that if there are no opposition parties you can go on with corruption, laziness, inactiveness and anti people activities, and that is why you are attempting to restrict opposition parties," he alleged.
When the earlier circulars were issued there were no technological advantages of zoom, google and other applications and physical meetings had to be called, he pointed out.
Siddaramaiah stated that he has no intentions to review the functioning of officials and give them instructions, during the meeting and has enough knowledge of the Constitution.
"Gathering information is my only intention and a format for sharing the information has also been prepared and sent to officials...
as officials during many instances have shared information different from what has been asked, I have intended to gather it face-to-face to avoid confusion, allocating 30 minutes to one hour for each district," he said.
"So I urge you to immediately instruct the concerned officials to attend the zoom meeting and provide information, failing which I'm ready for any kind of parliamentary or constitutional confrontation to safeguard the public interest.
Without giving opportunity for that, I urge you to allow me to exercise legislative powers and responsibility to protect public interest," he told Yediyurappa.
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Batumi (Georgia), Jul 26 (PTI): Young Indian International Master Divya Deshmukh held her nerves to hold stalwart Koneru Humpy to a draw in game 1 of the FIDE Women's World Cup final, with both players having their share of opportunities to take the lead here on Saturday.
The draw with black means Humpy, the two-time World Rapid champion, holds a slight edge going in the second and final game under the classical chess rules in the two-game mini-match, and should the deadlock continue, games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner.
Humpy employed the Queen's gambit accepted as black and it turned out to be a pretty fascinating game right out of the opening as Divya, 19, came up with a piece sacrifice early to deny the black king the right to castle.
Humpy was the first to err and, according to computers, Divya had things under control on the 14th move. However in her bid to recover the extra material, the Nagpur girl, who has secured a place in the Candidates tournament with her sterling performance here, missed a promising continuation.
What followed the exchange of all minor pieces and the ensuing queen and rook endgame gave enough counter play to both players. The game was eventually drawn after Humpy sacrificed her rook to force perpetual checks.
"The game saw an extremely sharp battle with the game ending in a draw in 41 moves. On move 7, Divya made her aggressive intentions clear by offering another pawn,
which looked like home preparation. Humpy made a practical decision of refraining from taking the pawn and a balanced position was reached by move 10 by white," said Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, an Arjuna awardee and the first Indian to get a chess Grandmaster norm.
"However, instead of developing the undeveloped Knight, Humpy retreated the centralised Knight on move 10, giving huge positional advantage to Divya. Divya could have gained huge positional advantage on the 12th move by moving a rook. However, she chose to play for King side attack by sacrificing a piece instead.
"Humpy, too, erred at this stage and instead of moving the King to Queen side, moved it to the King side. Divya, on move 14, could have obtained a crushing attack by threatening a mate by developing her Queen. Instead she chose to exchange a pair of Bishops first, which enabled Humpy to defend her King by returning the piece," said Thipsay.
"Players thus reached a balanced Queen and two Rooks ending. Divya continued to play ambitiously and tried to attack Humpy’s King but the latter defended accurately and the game was drawn in 41 moves by perpetual check," he added.
In the play-off for the third place, Chinese players Zhongyi Tan, the former women's world champion and top seed Lei Tingjie also decided to split points out of a Queen’s gambit declined game.
The opening raised visions of a close contest between the two but having been knocked out of title race in the previous round, none of them wanted to take any huge risk. It was still a middle game when the players shook hands.
With the top two positions sealed for the Indians, the berth to the next Candidates is also assigned, while the player finishing third will also get an entry to the premier event scheduled for 2026.
Results: Divya Deshmukh (Ind) drew with Koneru Humpy (Ind); Zhongyi Tan (Chn) drew with Tingjie Lei (Chn).