Don't expect miracles from Shettar, says Siddaramaiah

Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Siddaramaiah, has said one could not expect a miracle from Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, who took the oath of office on Thursday.

He said Shettar’s elevation would not bring about any drastic changes in the functioning of the BJP government. Siddaramaiah said Shettar’s performance as minister of rural development and panchayat raj was nothing extraordinary in the previous dispensation.
 
He said as minister he had not even prepared the action plan for the Rs 550-crore grants released by the Centre under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

Siddaramaiah said the Congress would not try to bring down the government, which may suffer an “abortion” in the remainder of its term of nine months. He declared that his party was ready to face the elections any moment.

He said there was uncertainty over how long the chief minister continued in his post, but his first priority should be towards tackling the drought gripping the State.

He should look into the woes of farmers who are committing suicide out of desperation, besides taking steps to protect livestock. Siddaramaiah said measures  should be taken to prevent the migration of workers from the villages in search of jobs.

The Congress leader defended Governor H R Bhardwaj’s stand that he would not administer the oath of office as ministers to tainted leaders.

As many as 14 ministers - including Katta Subramanya Naidu, H Halappa, Lakshman Savadi, Krishnaiah Setty, C C Patil and Krishna Palemar - had resigned due to various reasons after the BJP came to power, Siddaramaiah said.

He alleged that 15 ministers in the new Cabinet had criminal cases against them. There were never as many tainted ministers in the Cabinet in the history of the State as in the BJP government, Siddaramaiah said.