Drop Katti from Cabinet: Congress

Minister has hurt the sentiments of the people

State Congress president G Parameshwara on Monday condemned Agriculture Minister V Umesh Katti’s demand for a separate state comprising North Karnataka districts, and urged Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar to drop him from the Cabinet.

The Congress leader, who met Shettar to invite him for the inauguration of various welfare schemes in his Korategere constituency, later told reporters that Katti’s repeated statements on a separate state worked against the interests of Karnataka.

“Katti’s removal from the Cabinet will not affect the government adversely. Instead, it will send a strong message to the people who are pressing for the division of the State,” he said. He said former minister Janardhan Reddy had already set a wrong precedent by tinkering with the State’s boundary and merging a part of it with that of Andhra Pradesh.

“Now, Katti, with his separatist statements, has hurt the sentiments of the people,” he said.
Parameshwara said the decisions taken at the Cabinet meeting held in Gulbarga recently were politically motivated.

“The government has still not given its consent to several major projects. Most of them will not even be initiated, as the government’s remaining term is less than six months. The decisions are a mere eyewash,” he said.