BS Yediyurappa rejigs ministerial tasks to handle Covid-19

Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Saturday reallocated Covid-19 responsibilities among his Cabinet colleagues, amid talk that there was a race among ministers to prove their credentials during the raging pandemic.

In the fresh rejig, Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar will be in charge of policy, guidelines, the Covid-19 War Room and press briefings.

Deputy Chief Minister CN Ashwath Narayan will look after Covid Care Centres (CCC), which are mostly private institutions converted into facilities to manage the pandemic.

Revenue Minister R Ashoka and the CM’s political secretary SR Vishwanath have been asked to manage beds in private hospitals and ensure they are available for patients.

The reallocation of responsibilities was decided at a meeting of the Covid-19 task force that Yediyurappa convened Saturday afternoon, Sudhakar said. “We discussed everything and that we should work as a team,” Sudhakar told reporters.

This is not the first time Yediyurappa has stepped in to sort matters out. When the pandemic first broke out, he had to deal with what looked like a turf war between Sudhakar and Health Minister B Sriramulu. Then, Yediyurappa made Sudhakar in charge of Covid-19 affairs in Bengaluru and asked Sriramulu to focus on the rest of Karnataka. When both of them continued to issue contradictory statements, Yediyurappa appointed Primary & Secondary Education Minister S Suresh Kumar as the Covid-19 spokesperson.

On June 25, when Sudhakar was under home quarantine, Yediyurappa asked Ashoka to manage Covid-19 in Bengaluru, which reportedly led to heartburn within the Cabinet.

The apparent lack of coordination among ministers came as a shot in the arm for the Opposition Congress, which took potshots at the Yediyurappa administration.

Sudhakar also said that Yediyurappa wanted all those areas in Bengaluru having high Covid-19 cases to be sealed down effectively. “Since more cases are being reported in Bengaluru south, the CM said the seal down should be done more in appropriate places,” he said.

The possibility of imposing a lockdown was also discussed, Sudhakar said. “But lockdown isn’t a permanent solution. I said we shouldn’t go for another lockdown and even Narayan concurred. The CM, however, stressed on seal downs and the need to do more tests in crowded places such as markets,” Sudhakar said.