Drop Dinesh from Cabinet, demands BJP

The State BJP on Wednesday demanded the resignation of Food and Civil Supplies Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao following a jurisdictional tahsildar’s report confirming that the minister and his family had grabbed 10.09 acres of government land at Navaratna Agrahara near Devanahalli in Bengaluru (North).

Addressing a press meet, Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council K S Eshwarappa and former chief minister Jagadish Shettar said Dinesh should own moral responsibility for being guilty of encroaching on government land and tender his resignation from the Council of Ministers immediately. “In case Gundu Rao does not resign on his own, then Chief Minister Siddaramaiah should drop him from the Cabinet. Otherwise, the chief minister will be sending a wrong message to the people,” Eshwarappa said.

The Lokayukta police had directed the Bengaluru (North) tahsildar to submit a report on the alleged encroachment of land. The tahsildar submitted his report to the Lokayukta police recently. Eshwarappa charged that Dinesh and his family had encroached on another 58 acres and 38 guntas of land. The government should conduct an inquiry and recover the land, he demanded.

Former chief minister Jagadish Shettar said all the legislators of the BJP in both Houses of the Legislative Assembly would stage a protest demonstration in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue and Ananda Rao Circle in Bengaluru on November 20 against “deteriorating law and order situation and rampant illegal sand mining” in the State.

Shettar demanded that the State government immediately fix a minimum support price to purchase onions from farmers in distress and also pay the dues to sugar cane farmers.There is no provision for the State government to announce a minimum support price (MSP) for onions, unless it gets approval from the Centre. Money spent on MSP by the State gets reimbursed from the Centre.