'Disgruntled' chairpersons of boards, corporations to hold meeting

Disheartened and disgruntled over lack of proper status, close to 25 chairpersons of various boards and corporations are planning to meet Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to convey their grouse.

On Saturday, around 25 out of the 90 chairpersons met at the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee office to get an appointment with the party president G Parameshwara, which they failed to. They decided to appeal to Siddaramaiah, through Parameshwara, sometime next week.

Also, midway through the meeting, they disbanded after the media was alerted about the same. While the common grouse remains that of the Cabinet minister status, several of the chairpersons are upset over the fact that they don’t even have offices and staff, let alone a vehicle. Many of them also wanted to complain about the non-cooperation from the officials. None of the political appointees have not been given any terms of reference, even after seven months of their appointments.

Appointment withdrawn

One among the aggrieved was Anand Kumar, whose appointment as chairman of the Karnataka Compost Development Corporation (KCDC), has been withdrawn, after the government directed the BBMP to supercede on June 11. 

Kumar said that Siddaramaiah should have at least heard him before taking the decision. “What is the use of being appointed as the chairman, when the chief minister has more confidence in the officials? Ever since my appointment, I have operated from Kumara Krupa guesthouse, as I was never given an office space. I have written to the chief minister on earlier occasions too, but to no avail,” he added.

Karnataka Forest Development Corporation chairman, Chelavadi Narayanswamy, however said that over 50 per cent of the chairpersons were facing similar problems. 

Some of the chairpersons who had participated in the meeting include P R Ramesh - Slum Development Board; Rani Satish - Hutti Gold Mines; Ramachandrappa - Devaraj Urs Backward Classes Board; Kamalakshi Rajanna - Mango Development Board; V Bakappa Kote - Karnataka Wine Board; Masood Foujdar - Minority Development Corporation; and Gurappa Naidu - KSSIDC.