Release list of people granted Cabinet, MoS ranks: Ravikumar to CM Siddaramaiah

Bengaluru: Chief Whip of the Opposition in the Legislative Council N Ravikumar on Monday urged the state government to release the list of people who had been awarded Cabinet and Minister of State (MoS) ranks.

Addressing a press conference, Ravikumar cited a media report and claimed that 150 persons had been awarded Cabinet and MoS ranks in the state.

“As per an act (Constitution 91st Amendment Act, 2003) in 2003, only 15% of the people can be ministers. Because of this, this government is conspiring to give Cabinet rank to people through backdoor methods. Even those who are not legislators have been given this rank. There are currently 138 Congress MLAs but as many as 150 people have Cabinet rank. This is causing a burden of around Rs 50 crore per month on the government.”

The MLC urged the government to release a white paper on the expenses being incurred and urged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to release a list of all those who had been granted Cabinet and MoS ranks. 

DKS defends decision

Defending the government’s decision, Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said: “Sometimes, we follow the BJP too. We saw how they made appointments (of chairmen) during their tenure. It is the Congress party workers who got the party to power and not D K Shivakumar or Siddaramaiah. They got the party to power and now they will get power. Many more will get to share power and we have given them timelines.”

Dismissing the BJP’s charge that taxpayers’ money was being “wasted,” Shivakumar said: “The party workers deserve this status as it is the respect we give them. It is not the public money but a provision given by the government. We will take care of any fund crunch in the boards.”