HDK paints 'caste colour' to compensation issue

Talking to newspersons here, he said, apart from Rs five lakh compensation, the CM had promised a job to one of the sons of Renukaswamy, the victim.

Several persons in the past had died in similar incidents across the State and the CM never announced that much of compensation to the families of the victims. Yeddyurappa should clarify whether the name of the victim made him increase the compensation amount.

The compensation in case of elephant death which was Rs 50,000 was hiked to  Rs 1.5 lakh during his tenure, Kumaraswamy stated.

On CM holding the Cabinet meeting in rural areas, Kumaraswamy opined that the Cabinet meetings have sancity and it should be held in the Vidhana Soudha. It was not a ‘touring talkies’ to hold the Cabinet meeting as per the whims and fancies of Yeddyurappa.

 Such statements are made just for  publicity sake. Last year, CM had conducted the meeting in Gulbarga spending more than Rs 40 lakhs. Apart from publicity, no development works had taken place since then, he added.

He also defended Janata Dal (Secular) legislators boycotting the the Assembly session recently and said no discussion or debate had been held on development works in the Assembly since the past three years. The Speaker, who has to be impartial, was dancing to the tunes of the chief minister. Condemning all these, the party has boycotted the session, he said.

Access

The CM has complained that the copy of the files of his signature reaches Opposition party. It was  the duty of the opposition parties to know what was happening in the State. Moreover, anyone can have access to those files under the Right  to Information Act.

Former prime minister and MP H D Deve Gowda had shown how the opposition parties should function, he said.

Kumaraswamy declined to comment the ongoing indefinite stir by yoga guru Baba Ramdev against corruption and said that he did not know why the yoga guru had taken up this issue. The JD(S) has always been against corruption. Though Deve Gowda was the prime minister for a short term of ten months, he brought out a system where the people were given an opportunity to declare their black money. He also took the opportunity to ridicule BJP leaders for supporting Ramdev, saying the leaders themselves are corrupt and are supporting anti-corruption stir.

He also condemned Sushma Swaraj, who is one of the aspirants for prime minister’s post, for breaking into a jig at Rajghat.