Will defy blackmail, black magic, says BSY

Inaugurating an event organised to distribute bonds and sarees among those entitled for the Bhagyalakshmi scheme in Raichur on Sunday, he admitted that BJP legislators were pressuring him to offer them Cabinet berths.

“Instead of yielding to their ‘unethical’ demands, I am ready to resign from the post,” Yeddyurappa declared and said voters will not forgive those who have indulged in blackmail. “Even if the voters forgive them, the God will not,” he said.

With tears welling up in his eyes, the Chief Minister said his political rivals were “practising black magic” against him in revenge against his move in banning the “loot of mineral wealth including iron ores” in the State. His opponents, said the chief minister, were trying to place a jinx on him.

He said the Government was committed to implement the Bhaygalakshmi scheme without heeding to the criticism from the Opposition. Not just the distribution of sarees and bonds, the Government will bear the responsibility of completing their education too, he added.

He said those entitled to the scheme should complain to the Deputy Commissioner if any middlemen demanded bribe. On the allegations of irregularities and political motives  in the purchase and distribution of sarees, he said: “I will swear that there is no self-interest or party politics behind the distribution of sarees. Extending a helping hand to the girls from the poor families is the only objective behind this scheme.”

BSY spends Diwali with flood-hit

It was a Diwali with a difference for 40 families that lost their homes in the devastating floods that swept north Karnataka last year.

For, Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa visited them at their new homes at N Malkapura near here, on the occasion of the festival of lights. As fireworks lit up the sky, and lamps set the homes aglow, the families who peformed the ceremony of entering their new homes in the afternoon, waited for Yeddyurappa. In a symbolic gesture of inaugurating the colony, Yeddyurappa lit  lamps at the doorsteps of three houses belonging to Bheemappa, Kariyappa Gowda and Raghupathi Reddy. And in the main avenue of the colony, he even lit firecrackers with the  families.

Yeddyurappa’s festival day was complete when he had a Diwali dinner with the spread including ‘holige’ the traditional sweet.