I was offered Chief Minister post thrice' - Poojary drops a bombshell

[email protected] (CD Network)
July 20, 2012

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Bangalore, July 20: In a sensational revelation former Union Minister and senior Congress leader B. Janardhan Poojary has said that he was offered the post of Chief Minister of Karnataka by the party highcommand three times in the past.


“I was offered the post twice when Congress was the ruling party in the State. But I declined to take it up,” Mr. Poojary, who is known for his no-holds-barred comments told reporters here.


Taking a dig at the present party leadership in the State, Mr. Poojary suggested Congress legislators should have started an intense agitation over the failure of the government to appoint a Lokayukta,which has been lying vacant for almost a year now.


Mr. Poojary, as KPCC president during S.M. Krishna's tenure as Chief Minister during the first half of 2000s, had maintained a strict regimen in the party office during his tenure as the president by making even ministers visit it and hear grievances of party workers.


Mr. Poojary, has held several prominent positions in the party apart from being a junior minister in the ministry of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. He was appointed the All India General Secretary of the Congress party by Rajiv Gandhi in 1990 and subsequently made the KPCC president.


He rose to prominence again despite losing election to the Loksabha in Mangalore when he was appointed the AICC general secretary by P.V. Narasimha Rao during 1991-96. He was one of the confidantes of the late prime minister.


Interestingly, Mr. Poojary, who also hails from the Western Ghats area, supported Legislative Assembly Speaker K.G. Bopaiah for his statement that the UNESCO heritage tag to the 10 forest areas in Kodagu district was not good for its people.


But he demanded Mr. Bopaiah's resignation from the Speaker's post for saying that the people of Kodagu would be forced to demand Statehood if their rights over the forests were infringed upon in any way. Already Karnataka was plagued by the Belgaum issue and no one should meddle with the integrity of the State, he warned.


He said that Speaker Bopaiah should have resigned after being indicted by the Supreme Court in the case of disqualification of MLAs.


Mr. Poojary said that he will meet the party president Sonia Gandhi and request her to write to the Union Environment Ministry to ensure that UNESCO heritage tag to the Western Ghats is withdrawn.


On the resignation of Kundapur MLA Haladi Srinivasa Shetty from the Assembly, he alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh were driving a wedge between the Bunts and the Billavas. While Mr. Shetty is a Bunt, Mr. Kota Srinivas Poojary is a Billava.

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News Network
March 11,2020

Mar 11: Two activists of Sangh Parivar have been arrested by the police in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore for hurling a petrol bomb at a mosque in Ganapathy on March 5.

The miscreants had hurled petrol bombs at the front gate of Hidayathul Sunnath Jamath Mosque at Vedhambal Nagar near Ganapathy in Coimbatore around 1 am on March 5. Since the bomb did not explode, nobody was injured in the incident.

Following a complaint from the Secretary of the Jama’ath, the police had formed three separate teams to nab the miscreants.

Based on tip-offs, the police detained BJP member Pandi (41) and VHP member Akhil (23), both from Rathnapuri in Coimbatore for inquiry.  The duo has also been remanded to judicial custody.

According to a statement by the Coimbatore police, the accused told the police that they hurled petrol bomb at the mosque to protest against the attack against Anand, a Hindu Munnani functionary a few days ago. The accused also reportedly told the police that they were planning to create more chaos.

Madukkarai Anand, the District Secretary of Hindu Munnani was attacked on March 4, while he was returning home after participating in a pro-CAA dharna organised by the BJP and allied parties in Gandhipuram.

He was allegedly followed by men on two motorbikes, who attacked him with rods. Anand suffered head injuries in the attack and was admitted to a hospital. The Podanur police registered a case for attempt to murder based on a complaint and had also formed special teams to nab the accused. However, no one has been apprehended in that case till now.

Based on the statements given by the accused, the police arrested the two men, seized the two-wheeler they used, two cell phones and the things they used to manufacture the petrol bomb.

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News Network
February 23,2020

Madikeri, Feb 23: Back-to-back floods and landslides in the last two years, has led to a fall in the number of tourists coming to the coffee-growing region of Kodagu, forcing the district administration to intervene and take confidence-building measures, telling tourists that Kodagu was safe to visit.

According to the statistics of the Karnataka State Tourism Department, Kodagu recorded a moderately good number of tourists in 2018 and 2019, the years that the district witnessed devastating floods and landslides.

The Department’s statistics reveal that 17 lakh tourists visited Kodagu in 2018 and 18 lakh in 2019. This means the flood-ravaged years did attract tourists contrary to what the stakeholders had claimed.

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News Network
March 3,2020

Bengaluru, Mar 3: Minister of Medical Education K Sudhakar on Tuesday said that there is no need to panic as appropriate measures have been taken by the state government to tackle a possible Coronavirus outbreak.

"I request the media not to spread panic and support the government in dealing with any possible Coronavirus outbreak. With the help of the Centre we have taken all required precautionary measures to deal with any situation," Sudhakar told reporters.

Talking about the first confirmed case in Telangana, who had stopped over in Bengaluru, the Minister said, "His flatmates and 23 people who travelled with him from Karnataka are being screened. Both the state (Karnataka and Telangana) government are taking care of them."

"Out of the 295 samples collected so far, 240 tested samples tested negative. We are awaiting more results as of now. There are two labs. One in RGICS and another in Bangaluru Medical College where tests are being carried out," he said.

On Monday, the first confirmed case of a Novel Coronavirus in Telangana was reported from Hyderabad when a 24-year-old man, who had come in contact with some Hong Kong citizens, while he was in Dubai on February 17, tested positive for the virus.

After arriving in Bengaluru on February 20 and travelled to Hyderabad by bus on February 22.

Meanwhile, Telangana Health Minister Eatala Rajender on Sunday said that the state government is on a high alert since the confirmation of one Coronavirus positive case here.

The Health Department has also issued an advisory to all educational institutes.

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