JOIN USMinisters continue to bunk office
On Monday evening, the State Cabinet met for a mere 30 minutes and ministers left the secretariat building in a jiffy. The cabinet took decisions on 12 subjects.
After he took over as Chief Minister, B S Yeddyurappa had twice announced that all the members of his Cabinet would remain in the Vidhana Soudha to attend to official work after the Cabinet meeting on Thursdays.
He had also said that the ministers have been directed to attend to work in their chambers at Vidhana Soudha at least thrice a week.
But since October 6, when the last round of dissident activities began in full swing, the ministers have not been seen much in the Vidhana Soudha.
The last meeting of the Cabinet was held on October 4 in Gulbarga. The truncated Cabinet of Yeddyurappa with 28 ministers hardly spent anytime in the secretariat on Monday as all looked busy in attending meetings outside Vidhana Soudha, despite the BJP has temporarily suspended its stay in resort.
The BJP MLAs made Golden Palms Resort as their home from October 7 to 14 evening. Among the ministers the few who are seen in office occasionally are Suresh Kumar, R Ashoka, V S Acharya and Shobha Karandlaje.
Senior bureaucrats are mute witness to the happenings. They can’t ask their political bosses to attend the office to clear files or make themselves available for consultations.
Seeking anonymity, a senior IAS officer said hundreds of files had piled up as ministers had almost stopped attending to official work.
Why should routine work of the departments should suffer just because their political bosses are missing? The officer said ministers will have to take final call, whether right or wrong, on all the decisions taken by departmental heads. Eventually, the decision-makers are the political masters in the Cabinet, he said.
Ask Higher Education Minister Acharya about ministerial truancy, and he has an unconvincing explanation. “Some are attending the office regularly. But some could not attend because of political uncertainty. We had to be in Delhi, attending party meetings and prepare for the confidence vote day. But henceforth, things will fall in line”.
“Opposition is making desperate attempts to destabilise the government, May be the new comers did not attend office. I had no problem. I have worked under different chief ministers. I have seen many upheavals in politics”, PWD Minister C M Udasi said.
Security
Security was tight at Vidhana Soudha for the Cabinet meeting. Barring the ministers and department heads none was allowed to the Cabinet hall on the third floor, including media persons and the office staff of the ministers.