Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Jagadish Shettar on Wednesday charged Higher Education Minister Basavaraj Rayareddy with unnecessarily blaming Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for the I-T department seizing the accounts of the Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU).

Rayareddy has been blaming Jaitley for the I-T department’s action, which is not true. Jaitley actually has been helping the VTU in getting income tax exemption with retrospective effect. It is the responsibility of the state government to approach the court and challenge I-T department’s action.
Instead of approaching the court, Rayareddy has been issuing irresponsible statements, Shettar said in the Assembly.

C T Ravi (BJP) said the I-T department took action against the VTU during the previous Congress-led UPA rule. But the UPA government did not come to the rescue of the VTU. The Higher Education Minister was not present when the members discussed the VTU issue. But Industries Minister R V Deshpande admitted that Jaitley had extended all co-operation to the state government on the issue.

This apart, Shettar sought to know the status of the CID enquiry ordered by the state government into irregularities in awarding contracts in setting up water testing laboratories and purchase of furniture in the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) department.

RDPR Minister H K Patil had admitted irregularities in awarding the contracts and ordered the enquiry. But no action has been initiated in this regard so far.

Ravi criticised the government for not regularising the services of contract workers, including pourakarmikas in Bengaluru, and demanded that the government immediately direct the company running Arogya Kavacha scheme (108 ambulance service) to take back all the 674 employees. The company should be blacklisted if it refuses to do so, he added.