Siddaramaiah plans monthly meets over concerns of MLAs

Chairing a Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting here on Thursday, Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah said he has decided to address the grievances of legislators by holding monthly meetings in districts.

Siddaramaiah called the CLP meeting at a hotel after several legislators expressed concerns over non-implementation of development works in their constituencies.

At the meeting the chief minister made it clear to ministers that they should approve the recommendations made by MLAs regarding transfers of officials at the taluk/constituency level. Siddaramaiah told ministers to decide on transfer of officials at the district level.

A number of senior MLAs, including BR Patil, Basavaraj Rayaraddi, RV Deshpande, Vinay Kulkarni, and CS Nadagouda, had expressed their dissatisfaction with the functioning of many ministers and urged the chief minister to call a meeting of the CLP.

Addressing concerns about the release of funds for constituency development works, Siddaramaiah acknowledged that it was not possible to provide all the funds requested by MLAs due to the government’s hefty expenditure on the implementation of five guarantees, which totalled nearly ₹50,000 crore. However, he assured legislators that funds would be released on a priority basis. Siddaramaiah urged ministers and legislators to not be misled by false information spread by the BJP and to act responsibly in public.

During the recently concluded Budget session of the state legislature, several Congress MLAs and MLCs voiced their discontent, attributing their inability to execute essential constituency work to the alleged non-cooperation of ministers.

A legislator requesting anonymity revealed that the grievances encompassed the halt of various ongoing projects, including roads, community and school buildings, bridges, drinking water schemes, housing, and the lack of sufficient funds to address the drinking water shortage.

Adding fuel to the fire, an alleged letter supposedly signed by 30 MLAs emerged, accusing state ministers of demanding money in exchange for sanctioning funds for constituency-related projects. The letter bears the letterhead of party MLA BR Patil.

However, a day before the CLP meeting, senior Congress leader and Aland MLA BR Patil called for a comprehensive inquiry into a different letter that had recently gone viral on social media.

The letter, purportedly signed by 11 MLAs, caught Patil’s attention, and he promptly brought the matter to the attention of the superintendent of police, Isha Pant, urging a thorough investigation.

Patil suspected some unscrupulous individuals may have manipulated his old letterhead to create an illusion of discord between him and the district in-charge minister “for political gain”.

Commenting on the CLP meeting, Congress minister Priyank Kharge attributed the controversy to the previous government. He pointed out that many MLAs were concerned that the previous BJP government had announced several projects without allocating adequate funds for their implementation.

“The concern among the MLAs is that the last (BJP) government had announced several projects, but there are no funds for those projects. For example, in my RDPR (Rural Development and Panchayat Raj) department, several projects have been started. However, the former chief minister has not left money for these projects in the head of accounts. Similarly, each MLA is seeking similar matters to be discussed in the meeting. What is wrong with that?” he said.

In response to deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar’s statement about the lack of sufficient funds for development works, Kharge emphasised that the issue revolved around the unscientific manner in which the BJP government announced projects.

Shivakumar on Wednesday stated that the Congress government might face challenges in providing funds for development this year due to financial constraints arising from commitments made under the five guarantees.

“We have allocated ₹40,000 crore this year for the five guarantees, leaving limited funds for developmental projects,” said Shivakumar, who also serves as the minister for water resources and Bengaluru city development.

“Even in irrigation and public works, we can’t give (funds for development). But expectations are high. We’ve asked MLAs to hold on. We will explain this to them at the CLP meeting,” Shivakumar had said.

Kharge clarified that the current government had only been in power for two months, and the projects announced were inherited from the previous administration.

“Whatever projects were announced were done by the previous government. We have also set aside money for the scheme we have promised. We will present the budget in a few days; details of the budget, like the head of the account, will come. We will take a decision on which projects need to be given funds and which projects were unscientifically stated by the previous government. This will be discussed with the MLAs as well.”