‘Tackle drought or face ire’
In another not so subtle attack on Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda, former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa on Wednesday referred to his coming trip abroad to interact with the potential investors, and hoped he would reconsider going on it when the state was reeling under a severe drought. Driving his point home, he warned that unless the state government tackled the drought effectively, the people would come out on the streets.
On a visit to the drought affected villages of Bidar and Gulbarga, he blamed their district administrations for not rising to the challenge. “The drought situation is very grim. But the district administrations are sitting idle. In none of the places that I visited did I see relief measures being undertaken satisfactorily. Although there is no shortage of funds, the relief measures are inadequate. I warn the officials to wake up before the crisis deepens and people come out on to the streets”, he said.
Disagreeing that there was a tug of war for the CM’s chair and that this was having a negative impact on the state's administration, he said, “The bureaucracy does no need to be concerned with who is at the helm of affairs. It should simply do its duty.”
On the Opposition's comment that he behaved like he was leading them in opposing the government, Yeddyurappa shot back, “This is my innate style of functioning. Whether I am in power or not, I want to be in the midst of people, fighting for their cause. The Opposition has woken up only after I started touring drought -hit areas. They should thank me for giving them this wake-up call.” He advised the state to release Rs 200 crore for providing employment to people instead of waiting for the Centre to release Rs 400 crore under the MGNREG scheme.
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