Files pile up at Vidhana Soudha

The usual buzz and activity in the secretariat is missing for the last two weeks. The number of visitors too has declined substantially.

Busy in their own way in the middle of the prevailing political uncertainty, a majority of the ministers in the Yeddyurappa cabinet have stayed away from Vidhana Soudha for nearly a fortnight now.
The result - the secretariat looked detached from the action. The files waiting to be cleared by the ministers is piling up. Even the CM’s secretariat, on the second floor, always crowded with visitors from across the State, wore a deserted look on Friday.

“In our administrative set-up, let alone approval of new projects and schemes, sometimes even routine files need to be cleared by ministers. Their absence has resulted in a gridlock in running the government machinery,” a top official in the secretariat pointed out.

The Cabinet meeting has been postponed twice in as many weeks.

The last meeting scheduled for Friday evening had to be cancelled as the CM had to stay back in New Delhi in view of the party central leadership’s continued efforts to hammer out a solution to the crisis.
In another damage control move, Medical Education Minister Ramachandra Gowda on Thursday had said Cabinet ministers will return to Vidhana Soudha on Friday morning and resume routine official work, brushing aside allegations made by the Opposition that development had come to a standstill in the State.

However, that was not to be. The ministers remained away.

In a bid to ensure that legislators, especially those from north Karnataka, get time to attend to flood relief and rehabilitation work, all legislative committees meetings were staggered till November 14.  
The well-meant move of the secretariat has not served its purpose with more than 50 MLAs preferring to stay in different resorts.