Mangaluru stares at worst water crisis

Bengaluru, Jan 13: Days after indicating that he may not travel to Davos to attend the World Economic Forum later this month, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Monday said he will be attending the global meet, and that the expansion of his ministry will take place before his foreign tour.

Reiterating that he will keep the promise of making disqualified legislators who have won bypolls on BJP ticket as ministers, he said ministry expansion will happen soon after his meeting with party national president Amit Shah on the matter. "There is no truth in speculations that are going on regarding the cabinet expansion, in fact, Amit Shah had given me time for meeting today in Delhi, but I had to attend important programmes here.

Tomorrow if possible I will cancel all my programmes and will go to Delhi, and get cabinet cleared, there is no problem in that," Yediyurappa said.

Speaking to reporters here, he said the legislators who have won in the bypolls need not worry about the speculations.

"I will fulfil the promise that I have made. If Amit Shah is available I will try to go to Delhi tomorrow. If not he is coming here (Karnataka) on January 17 and 18, will get things cleared and expand the ministry," he said. Yediyurappa had earlier said he will be going to New Delhi probably on January 11 or 12 to discuss cabinet expansion with the BJP high command. However, on Saturday, he said he has decided to discuss the exercise with Shah during the latter's visit to the state next week.

Shah will be here to address a huge rally at Hubballi on January 18 as part of the BJP's nationwide outreach programme to create awareness among the people about the Citizenship Amendment Act.

To a question about his visit to Davos, Yediyurappa said "everyone is persuading me to go, so I have decided to go. As I'm being sent by the central government, so I will have to go, and I will go and come." Yediyurappa along with Union ministers Piyush Goyal and Mansukh Mandaviya as well as chief ministers - Amarinder Singh (Punjab), Kamal Nath (Madhya Pradesh) are among those expected join over 100 Indian CEOs in the Swiss ski resort town of Davos later this month for the WEF's 50th annual meeting.

The Chief Minister, however, had last week, indicated that he may not travel to Davos.

Rubbishing reports about the Ministry expansion after Delhi assembly polls, he said there is no connection between the two.

"I will talk to Amit Shah in a couple of days and immediately take up ministry expansion after that, there is no need for anyone to worry, and there is no truth in certain media reports," he said, adding that expansion exercise will be completed before his Davos visit.

The Chief Minister is likely to travel to Davos on January 20, according to sources.

According to reports, disqualified legislators who got re-elected during the December 5 bypolls on BJP ticket and are all set to become Ministers too had put pressure on Yediyurappa to expand the cabinet before the Davos visit.

As the Chief Minister has already made it clear that 11 of the disqualified JDS-Congress MLAs who got re-elected in the bypolls on BJP tickets will be made ministers, lobbying has been on within the party for the remaining ministerial berths.

Currently, there are 18 Ministers, including the Chief Minister in the cabinet that has a sanctioned strength of 34.

However, with reports that the high command may not be keen on making all the 11 re-elected legislators, whom Yediyurappa has given assurance, as Ministers, it remains to be seen how things turn out.

Cabinet expansion will not be an easy task for the Chief Minister as he will have to strike a balance by accommodating the victorious disqualified legislators as promised and also make place for old guards, upset at being "neglected" in the first round of the induction exercise.

He also has to give adequate representation to various castes and regions in his cabinet and also deal with allocation of key portfolios.

Mangaluru, Apr 4: The chemistry department of National Institute of Technology-Karnataka (NIT-K) here has started producing hand sanitizers in view of its shortage in the market after the coronavirus outbreak.

The social initiative led by Arun Isloor, professor and head of the department, was launched by NIT-K director K Uma Maheshwar Rao.

The raw materials needed for this product were provided by the institute.

Tumakuru, Jan 3: Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, who has drawn flak for the Centre releasing “inadequate” flood relief to the State, on Thursday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for additional relief during his speech at a farmers’ convention in Tumakuru.

The Chief Minister even said, “I have brought this to the notice of the Prime Minister three or four times, but till now no additional relief has been sanctioned. I request him with folded hands to release it soon,” in Kannada. The Prime Minister, who spoke later at the event, however, did not respond to the Chief Minister’s request in his speech.

Mr. Yediyurappa said the State had witnessed losses to the tune of over ₹30,000 crore because of floods.

‘Stress on irrigation’

Addressing farmers at one of his main support bases of Tumakuru, the Lingayat strongman advised the Prime Minister that his dream of doubling farmers’ income by 2023 could become a reality only if he focused on “providing scientific price to farm produce, bringing water to farms through irrigation, and by interlinking rivers”.

Mr. Yediyurappa’s remarks made at a programme to release the fourth instalment of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Yojana, a farm subsidy cash transfer scheme of the Union government, have raised eyebrows.

Stressing on the key role of irrigation schemes in farmers’ welfare, he sought a special package of ₹50,000 crore for completion of long-pending projects in Karnataka.

The five-minute-long speech is being seen as an attempt by the Chief Minister to assert himself within the party by publicly putting even the Prime Minister on the mat. This comes in the wake of the BJP suffering defeats in multiple States and the party’s victory in the recent bypolls in the State under Mr. Yediyurappa’s leadership, both of which have only strengthened the Chief Minister, sources in the party said. “We are curious as to how the party high command will now deal with this public assertion in front of the Prime Minister,” a senior party leader said.

The Chief Minister has been reportedly “deeply unhappy” over the delay in the flood relief by the Union government and also the “inadequate” amount released. The Opposition has attacked him over lack of adequate Central relief, which was interpreted as the BJP central leadership’s reported unhappiness with him. The Chief Minister had then said he was doing a “tightrope walk”.

After a delay of over two months, the Centre released ₹1,200 crore as flood relief in October 2019.