Belgaum: The State Government is likely to appoint an eminent person to the post of Deputy Chairman of State Planning Board, Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa has said.

In an informal chat with The Hindu on Sunday, Mr. Yediyurappa said the Government was in the process of selecting an eminent personality. "Shortly, we will fill the post," he said.

When his attention was drawn towards his party MLAs' complaint that the district administration was not responding to their requests on various development works, and their petition to the Chief Minister to transfer the Deputy Commissioner and the Superintendent of Police, he said: "All these problems will be set right in a week."

Earlier, talking to presspersons, he attributed the "number one" rank for the State's good financial administration during the financial year 2005-06 and the first three months of the current financial year, now headed by the Janata Dal (Secular)-Bharatiya Janata Party coalition Government to the bureaucrats managing Finance, Excise and Revenue departments.

Mr. Yediyurappa said he had asked the heads of departments to improve revenue mobilisation and take steps to cut pilferage and leakage of funds and resources. He urged the trading community to join the VAT regime to improve the finances. Of the 1.65 lakh commercial establishments surveyed, 58,000 units had not registered under the provisions of VAT, he said.

The Deputy Chief Minister appealed the Congress to cooperate with the Government in running the legislature session in meaningful manner.

Mr. Yediyurappa and Revenue Minister Jagdish Shettar said there was no plan of carving out new districts as the Delimitation Committee had been appointed for delimitation of electoral constituencies.

Mr. Yediyurappa reiterated the steps taken to reduce fee in engineering, medical and dental courses and said the Government would bear the additional burden of Rs. 25 crore in this regard. The Government had provided an additional fund of Rs. 150 crore to the Public Works Department towards maintenance of roads this year, he added.

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