JOIN USSiddaramaiah, Bommai spar over cabinet portfolios
Former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai on Wednesday questioned the Congress government for the delay in allocating portfolios to eight Cabinet ministers.
Bommai flagged the non-allocation of portfolios after Chief Minister Siddaramaiah formally introduced the new ministers to the Legislative Assembly.
"It would have been appropriate if the chief minister introduced ministers along with their portfolios. Why has it not happened? It should be done at the earliest," Bommai said.
Siddaramaiah said portfolios will be allocated soon, but pointed out that BJP's B S Yediyurappa had functioned alone for quite some time.
"Yediyurappa was alone in the Cabinet then. But in this case, there are ministers," Bommai said.
"We will give them the responsibility at the earliest. How long was B S Yediyurappa alone in the cabinet as the Chief Minister? Mr Former Chief Minister (Bommai), you need not have any doubts, they (Ministers) will be given responsibility at the earliest," he said.
Reacting to this, Bommai said, "Yeddyurappa was alone sworn in then, so was alone, but in this case, the Ministers have taken the oath. You make them Minister and don't give them the responsibility, what will the people think? " To this, the CM said, "No one will think anything if you the opposition don't think otherwise it will be enough." As Bommai said, he was speaking on behalf of the Ministers, Siddaramaiah replied by saying, "thank you for your suggestion."
Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar are separately leaving for New Delhi today, where they are expected to meet the Congress high command and discuss cabinet expansion, and allocation of portfolios to existing Ministers.
Jayaram is CM's secretary
BWSSB chairperson N Jayaram, a 2004-batch IAS officer, has been given concurrent charge as secretary to the chief minister.
In another transfer, Additional Chief Secretary (Infrastructure Development) Gaurav Gupta has been moved to the Energy Department.
(With PTI inputs)