Legislature snippets

Their own  rules

Monday saw Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah subjecting Chief Minister Yeddyurappa and the Reddy brothers of Bellary to some heavy flak.

During the discussion on floods in north Karnataka and subsequent relief measures, he said no rules of the State apply to Bellary and to its ministers.

The CM transferred 64 officials out of the district, but all were transferred back. A DC was transferred from Bidar to Bellary only to be sent back to Bidar. When the CM visited Bellary, the DC did not even receive him. “It is an insult to the CM’s post. Democratic values have taken a beating in Bellary,” he said.

When floods devastated the northern districts, the CM and his colleagues were busy in practising Yoga postures at Suttur Mutt, he remarked.

Siddu’s confession

Even as political leaders are discovering the world wide web, Siddaramaiah confessed that he can’t surf the net as he does not know how to do it. He also revealed that he is not very well versed with using a cell phone.

Siddaramaiah came out with these revelations when Minister Suresh Kumar said the details regarding the donations made to the government for flood relief were being published on a web site which was updated daily.

MLA too got relief

Having found it a challenge to identify all the flood-affected people to distribute compensation, officials in Haveri District hit upon a short cut. They distributed compensation to all farmers, regardless whether they were affected or not . Among such beneficiaries who got a cheque of Rs 2,000 cheque as compensation is Hirekerur Congress MLA B C Patil.

Revealing the faux pas during the discussion on flood relief, Patil said: “I am not affected by the floods. Still I got the cheque. Later I found out that every person who is a farmer has got the cheque. This shows how the officials are mismanaging the money meant for providing relief to the affected people.”

Borewells for dalits? Zero!

A member of the ruling party put the State Government in an embarrassing situation in the Council. S Veeraiah’s query on the number of borewells dug in agriculture land belonging to SC/ST under the Ganga Kalyana scheme elicited a shocker. Social Welfare Minister D Sudhakar’s reply tabled in the House showed that the not even one borewell had been dug against the target of 8,232 for the year 2009-10.

A anguished Veeraiah urged the government not to treat SC/STs as “football”. The Opposition benches joined the issue. JD(S) leader M C Nanaiah said the government was “dead”.

Leader of the Opposition Ugrappa alleged was “bankrupt”. Sudhakar said his department could not achieve progress in digging borewells due to lukewarm response from contractors.