Governor comes down heavily on new govt

Firing a first salvo against the one-day old Jagadish Shettar-led BJP Government, Karnataka Governor H R Bhardwaj on Friday said some ministers with ‘tainted record’ had been inducted into it ignoring his advice.

“There should have been an effort to clean up the administration which has not happened. There are still some people in the government who have tainted record, one who have court cases,” he told reporters responding to a query.

“I told them to keep out some names who were facing court cases. They (BJP leaders) said they will look into it, but they said their high command has decided the list,” said Bhardwaj who had spared the previous Sadananda Gowda government of any criticism in open. Bhardwaj, who had a running battle with the B S Yeddyurappa Government on various issues including corruption, however, said “Shettar is a lawyer and generally spoken of well in Karnataka. There are no allegations against him too.”

The governor, against whom the Yeddyurappa government had launched a campaign accusing him of trying to topple his government and seeking his recall, said he hoped the Shettar Government would be stable. Heaping praises on Sadananda Gowda, who fell a victim to factional war triggered by Yeddyurappa, Bhardwaj said “I wasn’t happy when he was asked to resign.”

Bhardwaj, a former union law minister, said there was no doubt that administration under Gowda was improving. “He was slowly and steadily going towards clean administration. The BJP wanted a leadership change and it was a party matter and as a governor I had to oblige,” he said. He said the country cannot afford to have tainted people in the ministry, but he cannot really stop it from happening.

“I can always guide, advise and suggest, but ultimately the governance is theirs. So whatever list they sent me in writing, I approved,” he said.

Contingency plans
As monsoon continued to play truant, Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar on Friday directed the officials to prepare contingency plans to face scarcity conditions in the coming months and announced immediate release of Rs 136 crore for relief works.

Reviewing the drought situation in 23 districts with top district administration officials through video conferencing, Shettar, who was sworn in yesterday, said Rs 40 crore had also been released for drinking water in urban areas where water shortage has been reported.

Shettar said there were shortcomings in implementation of employment guarantee scheme in some districts and asked the officials to ensure people got jobs. The water level in various reservoirs of the state was depleting due to failure of rains, he said, adding, the government would soon take a decision whether to go in for cloud seeding.

Only 1.08 million hectares of 7.47 million hectares has come under sowing during this Khariff season, indicating the gravity of the situation, he pointed out. The state government had so far released Rs 2,193 crore for relief works and Rs 1,736 crore spent, he said.

He said though the state submitted two memorandum to the Centre seeking Rs 6,215 crore assistance, only Rs 352.58 crore had been released.

Ministerial colleagues of Shettar and top officials of Revenue, Finance and other departments were present during the interaction with Deputy Commissioners, CEOs of zilla panchayats and others.