The Bill, passed by the both Houses of the Legislature, regulates the administration of public and charitable trusts in the State.

Addressing the media on Saturday, Parameshwara said the Bill was passed in both the Houses without giving the Opposition parties an opportunity for any discussion. “It is not right to control private trusts in this manner. Even when I was the education minister, I had made it amply clear that I was a government representative and a representative of private managements. There are other ways to control these trusts-the Anti Capitation Act is one such. The Act should be withdrawn, and the Bill has to be debated upon again,” he said.

When asked about the hike in fee structure in private engineering colleges, Parameshwara said this was the direct fallout of restructuring of pay scales on the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission. “Managements of private colleges have no option but to increase the fees. The only way to address this problem is for the State government to give subsidies to private colleges, while the Higher Education Council can regulate these colleges,” he said.

The former minister slammed the BJP government saying it had lost all moral authority concerning farmers as it had done nothing for them except mere lip service. He sought to know how many farmers had actually availed Rs 10,000 promised by the State under the Suvarna Bhoomi Scheme, for which the government was supposed to set aside a revolving fund of Rs 1,000 crore.

Parameshwara, who completed six months in office on Saturday, said the Cabinet decision approving acquisition of 1,916 acres of land at a much higher rate for the NICE project raised a lot of doubts and suspicions. “Whose money are they going to pay the farmers, for, it is more than apparent that NICE will not pay such high compensation as per the new agreement. My fear is that this land will not be utilised for the project and would be used for real estate. The State government is best known for its real estate dealings,” he charged.

State Congress leaders and AICC leaders including Madhusudan Mistry, Sanjay Nirupam, Oscar Fernandes and B K Hariprasad will stage Raj Bhavan chalo on May 9, where the party will submit yet another memorandum to Governor H R Bhardwaj reiterating the shortcomings of the State government including continued corruption and illegal mining in forest land. Parameshwara said the Congress would draw up an action plan to strengthen the party further in the next three months.

Parameshwara demanded Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa to release the list of Congress leaders, allegedly involved in illegal mining.

“The chief minister has been talking about releasing a list of the names of Congress leaders for some time now. What is stopping him? The Congress is not worried about these threats. If at all anybody has  committed anything wrong, action will be taken accordingly,” he said.