Bengaluru, Aug 28 (IANS) Karnataka Legislative Council BJP Chief Whip, N. Ravikumar, on Friday said Planning and Statistics Minister B. Nagendra’s resignation is inevitable and alleged that the minister’s continuation in the Cabinet has caused serious embarrassment to the state government.
It can be noted that Minister Nagendra is yet to announce his resignation officially. However, Nagendra has stated that he would not embarrass the party, fueling speculation about an impending resignation.
Speaking to reporters at Jagannatha Bhavan, the BJP state headquarters in Bengaluru, Ravikumar said the BJP and JD(S) had raised the demand for Nagendra’s resignation in the legislature and that the BJP had also conducted protests across taluks and districts in the state.
He alleged that crores had been illegally transferred from the Union Bank branch on M.G. Road to around 600 bank accounts. He also referred to the arrest of several officials in connection with the case and the death of P. Chandrashekhar, who had allegedly died by suicide amid the controversy.
Ravikumar alleged that funds meant for student scholarships, loans to support small businesses and assistance for farmers to obtain borewells were instead diverted for purposes including the Telangana Assembly elections and the Ballari bypoll, as well as the purchase of a Lamborghini car, gold and silver.
“These allegations have been widely reported in print and visual media. All this has caused enormous embarrassment to the government,” he said.
Ravikumar also accused the D.K. Shivakumar-led government, as well as the previous Siddaramaiah government, of being “anti-social justice”.
He alleged that Mankala Vaidya, who belongs to the Other Backward Classes (OBC) community, had been considered for a ministerial position but was later dropped, which he claimed amounted to injustice to the backward communities.
He also alleged that an opportunity had been denied to Gayatri Gowda, a woman from a backward community, and questioned why Shivanna had not been made a minister.
Ravikumar further accused former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah of denying opportunities to leaders including Satish Jarkiholi, M.B. Patil, K.H. Muniyappa and Zameer Ahmed Khan in connection with the demand for additional Deputy Chief Minister posts.
He criticised Siddaramaiah for making his son Yathindra Siddaramaiah a minister, saying that if Shivanna had been chosen instead, it could have demonstrated a commitment to social justice.
Ravikumar questioned why successive governments had failed to implement various reports concerning caste and social welfare.
He said a caste census had been conducted under the leadership of K. Kantharaj but was not implemented. He also alleged that the report submitted by Jayaprakash Hegde was ignored.
Although the government had received a report prepared under the leadership of Madhusudan Naik, Ravikumar claimed that pressure was now being exerted on Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar to implement it.
“Why did you not implement it when you were in power?” he asked.
Ravikumar also criticised the government over drought relief, alleging that the drought assessment had not been conducted properly and that farmers had been denied compensation.
He claimed that farmers had not received even a single rupee in compensation and described this as a grave injustice.
Ravikumar recalled that during B.S. Yediyurappa’s tenure as Chief Minister, farmers had reportedly received compensation of Rs 27,000 per hectare for non-irrigated land and around Rs 34,600 per hectare for irrigated land.
He demanded that the government take immediate steps to provide relief to farmers affected by drought.
–IANS
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