14 Karnataka Congress MLAs to head boards, corporations

Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy appointed 14 Congress legislators as Chairpersons of boards and corporations in the state, an official statement said.

Of the 14, there is only one woman MLA, Laxmi Hebbalkar, from Belagavi, who will head the Mysore Minerals Ltd.

Other board and corporation heads include: B.K. Sangameshwar (Karnataka Land Army Corp), R. Narendra (Karnataka Food and Civil Supplies), B. Narayan Rao (Karnataka Forest Development Corp), Umesh G. Jadhav (Karnataka State Warehousing Corp) and T. Raghu Murthy (Hutti Gold Mines Ltd).

Others to head various boards and corporations are Yashwanthraygoud Patil (Urban Water Supply and Drainage Board), B.A. Basavaraj (Karnataka Soaps and Detergents Ltd), B. Shivanna (Karnataka State Electronics Development Corp Ltd), S.N. Narayanswamy (Ambedkar Development Corp), Munirathna (Karnataka Skill Development Corp), Shivaram M. Hebbar (North West Karnataka Road Transport Corp), B.S. Suresh (Karnataka State Small Industries Development Corp) and T.D. Rajegowda (Malnad Area Development Authority).

The coalition government will have Congress and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) sharing the posts of board and corporation heads, with Congress heading 20 boards or corporations and the JD-S 10. The JD-S, however, is yet to appoint its legislators to the posts.

In a related development, the Chief Minister also appointed eight Congress legislators as parliamentary secretaries.

They are K. Abdul Jabbar, Anjali Hemanth Nimbalkar, Ivan D'Souza, K.M. Shivanand, M. Roopa Kala, K. Govindaraju, Raghavendra Basavaraj Hitnal and D.S. Hoolageri.

In the 225-member Assembly, the Congress has 80 MLAs including Speaker, JD-S 37 and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) 104.

In the 34-member ministry, the Congress has 22 ministers, including Deputy Chief Minister G. Parameshwara, and JD-S 10, including the Chief Minister, and two vacant posts.

--IANS

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