BJP retracting on Siddu: DKS

Energy Minister D K Shivakumar on Saturday the BJP was backtracking from proceeding against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in the Arkavathi case since it had realised the CM had no role in denotification.

The BJP leaders initially planned to take up the issue, but later entrusted the task to party’s legal cell and at last they were planning to lodge a complaint through a private person, he told reporters.

“The BJP has realised the truth and it should now back off from destabilising the government by misguiding people. Siddaramaiah only approved re-designing plan of Arkavathi Layout as per the decisions taken when Jagadish Shettar and D V Sadananda Gowda were chief minister. He hasn’t denotified any land,” he said.

Power sector

The minister said public protests against thermal plants were “obstructing” the government’s efforts to achieve self-sufficiency in the power sector.

“It has become very difficult to set up new power plants in the State. There hasn’t been any progress in the agreement the previous BJP government had signed with Chhattisgarh. We have submitted a proposal to the Centre for a joint venture in Chhattisgarh,” he said. Karnataka has been generating just 6,000 MW against the installed capacity of 14,000 MW a year, he added.