Karnataka - Gulbarga   

Chief Minister accused of bid to blackmail Opposition

Special Correspondent

House panel findings have been leaked: Dharam Singh

N. Dharam Singh

GULBARGA: Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly N. Dharam Singh has accused Assembly Speaker Krishna of leaking the findings of the Joint House Committee on illegal encroachment of government land and allowing the Government to use the information to browbeat its political opponents.

Mr. Singh, addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, was referring to Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy’s statement about the alleged encroachment of government land by a relative of a former Chief Minister and his threat to expose the findings within a fortnight. He also alluded to Congress MLA R. Roshan Baig, who is a member of the committee, submitting the findings to Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

He said a House committee should submit its report to the Speaker, who should either place it before the legislature or submit it to the Government. In the latter case, the report should be considered by the Cabinet and placed before the legislature for discussion. When that was the procedure, how could the findings be made public by the Chief Minister or a member of the committee, he wondered.

If the report had been discussed and approved by the Cabinet, let the Chief Minister say so and reveal the names of the politicians and their relatives who had allegedly grabbed government land, the former Chief Minister said.

Mr. Singh said the Chief Minister was trying to blackmail the Opposition, but the Congress would not be cowed by such threats.

Refusing to say anything on Mr. Baig submitting the findings of the committee to Ms. Gandhi, bypassing the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC), he said KPCC president M. Mallikarjun Kharge had issued a show-cause notice to Mr. Baig.

Referring to the various statements being made by leaders of the JD(S) and the BJP on the transfer of power to the BJP at the end of the 20-month tenure of Mr. Kumaraswamy as Chief Minister, Mr. Singh said the subject had become a joke in administrative and political circles.

He said the smooth transfer of power to the BJP depended on the whims of JD(S) national president H.D. Deve Gowda. The present political situation pointed to mid-term elections, which the Congress was in favour of. “We have learnt a lesson from our experience of forming a coalition government with the JD(S) and we do not want to repeat the mistake.”

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