Karnataka - Bangalore   

Kumaraswamy hits back at Congress

Special Correspondent

BANGALORE: Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on Tuesday hit back at the Congress for seeking the dismissal of the coalition Government and invited its leaders to join him in his overnight stay in villages to understand that gravity of problems faced by the people.

Addressing presspersons here, he criticised the Congress for submitting a 15-point charge sheet against the Government to Governor T.N. Chaturvedi on Monday and seeking its dismissal. The Congress was facing a "political drought" in all States because of bad governance over the past 50 years. Instead of criticising the Government, the Congress leaders should try to understand people's problems.

He dismissed the charge of maladministration by the Janata Dal (S)-Bharatiya Janata Party Ministry, especially with regard to the handling of drought relief measures in 128 taluks.

Mr. Kumaraswamy said he was extending an open invitation to Congress leaders to be large-hearted enough to join him and stay overnight in four or five villages so that they could understand the deplorable conditions there, which he attributed to misrule by the Congress during its decades in power.

Mr. Kumaraswamy said he was not expressing his helplessness as the Congress leaders had claimed when he criticised the style of functioning of a section of IAS officers and asked them "not to sit in air-conditioned rooms and instead reach out to the people". He had only asked the officials to mend their ways. The Congress leaders, with decades of ministerial and legislative experience, could share their wisdom with him, he said.

The Chief Minister said his intention was not to tar all IAS officials with same brush, but he only wanted a section of them, who were not responsive to the demands of the people, to become more active.

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