BELGAUM: The Karnataka Development Programme (KDP) meeting presided over by Horticulture Minister Shashikant A. Naik (BJP) for the first time after being appointed as district in-charge Minister was held here on Tuesday. That the meeting deviated from the agenda of reviewing development programmes and concluded with discussions on flood-related problems.

It ended on an unsavoury note with the former Minister Prakash B. Hukkeri and Kakasaheb Patil (both from the Congress) tossing a copy of the list of proposed works and walking out of the meeting hall after accusing the chair of indulging in "eye wash" and "publicity".

The BJP MLAs, Mahadevappa Yadwad, Laxman Saudi, Raju Kage and Suresh Marihal, and Mr. Hukkeri and Mr. Patil, who attended the meeting, said their roles as elected representatives was serving no purpose as officials in the district administration and zilla panchayat ignored them while planning or implementing development programmes.

Mr. Hukkeri said the Government had not involved elected representatives in the District Level Implementation Committees for flood-affected areas. The Maharashtra Ekikaran Samithi leader Manohar Kinekar, MLA, said the administration was unaware about how a village accountant in Nandihalli of Belgaum taluk threatened affected villagers and reportedly tried to deprive them of compensation for their crop loss. The Minister instructed the Assistant Commissioner Vijaykumar Torgal to take action against the village accountant.

Under instruction from the Government and to ensure transparency in the implementation of relief works during 2005-06, the DLIC had submitted a list of works implemented to the Lok Ayukta Superintendent of Police and the latter was expected to inspect them and give a report to the Government, Mr. Hukkeri said. He asked the chair to summon the Superintendent of Police and seek details.

Deputy Commissioner Shalini Rajneesh said the Lok Ayukta SP had not informed her about any irregularity. She said of the 6,375 relief works taken up, 5,882 had been completed.

Mr. Saudi and other BJP MLAs criticised officials of HESCOM for their failure to restore electricity within the mandatory 72 hours in flood-affected areas.

Mr. Naik, who is associated with the cooperative electricity supply society in his home taluk Hukkeri, promised to help HESCOM improve efficiency and the distribution system.

On the poor condition of roads, Mr. Hukkeri and other MLAs hauled up officials of the Public Works Department for not presenting proper facts.

`Old proposals'

Later, when the Minister started reading out the list of works proposed to be taken up as part of Vishwa Kannada meet to be held in Belgaum this year, Mr. Hukkeri and Mr. Patil said all the proposals were old ones and had been pending approval before the Government for a couple of years.

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