'Is this pickpocketing or dacoity?', fumes ex-speaker

Former Assembly Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar tore into the Forest department by comparing the works done by its officers to dacoity and robbery.

Kumar, Srinivaspur MLA, was speaking in the Assembly on the demand for grants.

“In Kolar, the Forest department got Rs 200 crore in the last three years. But, there’s not a single plant that comes to my knees that I can find anywhere. Like this, the total expenditure shown for the entire Bayaluseeme (Plains) region is Rs 700 crore. Is this pickpocketing, robbery or dacoity? Under what category will this come? I can’t find the right word,” Kumar said.

Kumar said the salary of a chief conservator of forests is Rs 1.44 lakh and that of a deputy conservator Rs 67,550. “Their great achievement that deserves a special resolution is in Kolar where eucalyptus is grown on 13,440 hectares. If land doesn’t go barren, then what else will happen? For what are the officials getting paid? We made a law against eucalyptus. Why do we need this House when there’s no value for the laws we make,” he asked.

When Kumar wondered if the Forest department belonged to a different realm altogether, another former speaker K G Bopaiah rose to say that officials had stopped Jal Jeevan Mission works in his Virajpet constituency. “No law applies to the Forest department. If we don’t control them, then development will take a hit,” Bopaiah said.

Cucumber university?

Kumar then turned his guns on agricultural universities for not conducting adequate research that benefited citizens. “Why don’t you open 10-15 new universities? Perhaps one for each district and one for each taluk,” he said. “Why don’t you create a university for cucumbers, brinjal, coriander and curry leaves? There are people ready with their suits waiting to be appointed as vice-chancellors,” he quipped.

The existing universities have been unable to provide a solution for widespread weeds such as Prosopis Juliflora (Ballari Jaali), Kumar said, urging the government to act.

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