Cong leaders complain about 'inept' ministers

The Congress-led government in the state on Saturday came in for criticism by its own party legislators with a section of them complaining to all-India General Secretary Digvijaya Singh against some ineffective ministers.

On the second day of his three-day visit to the state, Singh, who is in charge of party affairs in Karnataka, held meetings with legislators and chairpersons of boards and corporations.

Singh met the legislators in batches in the presence of party’s State president G Parameshwara and AICC secretaries in charge of  Karnataka, Shantaram Naik and Chellakumar. According to sources, legislators Allama Prabhu Patil, Malikayya Guttedar, K B Koliwad and a few others urged Singh that ministers should be responsive to legislators when they approach them with people’s problems.

But many ministers were lackadaisical in their attitude, showing the government in poor light, they lamented. Some of the ministers named by the legislators include M H Ambareesh, M B Patil, S R Patil and Qamarul Islam, the sources said.

The legislators even offered to put down their views in writing for the benefit of party leadership in New Delhi. 
The legislators noted that delayed response to people’s problems might adversely impact the party in the panchayat polls due later this year. Delays in executing housing projects in villages also came in for flak from the legislators at the meeting. 

Speaking to reporters after the day-long meeting, Parameshwara defended the legislators for airing their grievances at an internal party forum. “Their grievances and suggestions will be brought to the notice of the chief minister”, Parameshwara said.