Yediyurappa allocates portfolios, Ramesh Jarkiholi gets major & medium irrigation department
BJP MLA Umesh Katti claims he is best suited for Karnataka's CM post
Bengaluru, Feb 10: Four days after the cabinet expansion, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Monday allocated portfolios to the 10 newly inducted ministers including Ramesh Jarkiholi, who got the plum major and medium irrigation department, which he was pushing for.
The Chief Minister retained the Department of Public Administration, Bengaluru Development, Intelligence Department, Finance and portfolios not allocated.
According to a government press release, Anand Singh got food, civil supplies and consumers affairs portfolio, Srimant Patil was given textile while K Gopalaiah has been assigned small scale industries.
Byrathi Basavaraj secured the Urban Development Department barring Bengaluru-related civic affairs while S T Somashekar was given the charge of the cooperation department.
The BJP government assigned forest department to B C Patil, medical education to Dr K Sudhakar, municipal administration was given to K C Narayana Gowda and labour department to A Shivaram Hebbar.
The ten BJP MLAs, all defectors from the Congress and JDS, were inducted as ministers last Thursday, with the Chief Minister rewarding them with Cabinet berths for helping the BJP bring down the Congress-JD(S)coalition and come to power in July last year.
"Neither have I asked him nor as he enquired with me (regarding portfolio allocation). I had told him that whatever portfolio he gives me I will perform my duty sincerely.
I got the cooperation department, which is an area I have some experience," Somashekhar said.
Byrathi Basavaraj said he had not exerted pressure demanding any portfolio.
Meanwhile, discontentment started brewing with BJP MLA Basanagouda Patil raising the issue of addressing the regional balance in the cabinet.
"The sentiments of the MLAs should be taken care of.
Many MLAs have spoken to me on various issues highlighting the regional balance in the portfolio for the development of their region," he said.
Two other BJP MLAs--Umesh Katti and Mahesh Kumathalli-- once again made a pitch for cabinet berth.
Katti said he has always been an eligible candidate for a ministerial post.
Kumathalli once again reminded Yediyurappa of his promise to make him a minister when the bypolls were taking place in December last year.
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England sticking with Key, McCullum and Stokes despite Ashes humbling
London (AP): England is not sacking anybody following the 4-1 Ashes loss in Australia.
A review of the tour by the England and Wales Cricket Board, announced within hours of the final match in January, was concluded on Monday. Firing people would “be the easy thing to do,” ECB chief executive Richard Gould said but he insisted, "This is not the time to throw everything out."
Managing director Rob Key, coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes kept their jobs after the best England side to go to Australia in 14 years lost the Ashes in 11 days with two games to spare.
“Moving people on can sometimes be the easy thing to do. That's not the route that we're going to take,” Gould said. “I've seen the driving ambition and determination that we're lucky enough to have within our leadership group to take the lessons from the Ashes and move forward.”
Gould previously was the chief executive of Bristol City soccer club and said the ECB would not follow the same route as soccer's hire-and-fire culture.
“Cricket is a very unique sport in that it takes a team of leadership ... it's not like football where there's a single point of failure or success with a manager," he said. He added the ECB would not “select or deselect management based on a popularity campaign.”
The main criticisms of England's tour were poor preparation, player misbehavior, and selection mistakes.
At a press conference at Lord's, Gould and Key said McCullum and Stokes have not had a “bust up,” they did not want McCullum to “completely change” but “to evolve,” the behavior of some players was “unprofessional,” there will be more consequences for underperforming, and a commitment to “better long-term planning” ahead of major test series.
Some changes were already implemented for the Twenty20 World Cup, where England reached the semifinals. Gould implied that performance saved McCullum.
Key acknowledged that England supporters would be disappointed to see the management team go unpunished.
“I know people want punishment and that people then should be sacked for that,” Key said. “That doesn't mean we don't feel like we've gone through some serious pain: Brendon, myself, Ben. It's been as tough a time as I think I've had.”
