CM Bommai assures pro-people Budget; a permanent Leopard Task Force

The government has constituted an Elephant Task Force to control the jumbo menace in Mysuru region, Bommai said

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said that the government is committed to give a pro-people Budget. He was speaking to media persons at Mysuru airport in Mandakalli on Friday.

Bommai also said that a Leopard Task Force, similar to the Elephant Task Force, will be extended across the state.

The government constituted an Elephant Task Force to control the jumbo menace in Mysuru region.The Leopard Task Force will also function in a similar manner. The government will provide all facilities like men, material, vehicles and funds, he said.

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"In a meeting with the forest department officers, I told them to take the villagers into confidence. The volunteers from the village should be identified and provided training to prevent leopard menace and accompany the forest guards. There is a need to take the villagers into confidence, especially those living in the fringes of the forest," he said.

Awareness should be created among the villagers on the dos and don'ts during man-animal conflict, on observing the movement of animals, how to behave when in a group or alone and other things, he added.

To a query on Siddaramaiah assuring to resume 'Shadi Bhagya' if Congress comes to power, Bommai said, Siddaramaiah had taken the stand when he was the Chief Minister and it boomeranged affecting the party. "We have no objection if they want to continue," he said.

On being asked when BJP would announce the list of candidates for the elections -- like JD(S) and Congress -- he said, "Our strategy is different. We will announce what poll promises have been fulfilled during the Budget presentation.

"There is a need to take the people of all religions and communities into confidence to bring them into the mainstream of society and to build the nation," he said.

When asked about the opposition in appointing Revenue Minister R Ashoka as the district-in-charge of Mandya, the Chief Minister said no one from the party is opposing it. "There is no need to attach importance to it," he said.