'No exodus of BJP MLAs to Congress'

By Our Special Correspondent

HUBLI, APRIL 30. Mr. Jagadish Shettar, the Leader of the Opposition in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, has described as an unadulterated lie the claim made by Mr. B. B. Shivappa that there would be an exodus of BJP legislators to the Congress.

Mr. Shettar blamed Mr. Shivappa, who went over to the Congress from the BJP, for spreading the canard with a view to creating needless confusion. This was being done, he said, at a time when the general perception had turned the trend in favour of the BJP in the municipal elections.

Mr. Shettar said there was no question of anybody from the BJP legislature party walking over to the Congress. If any of them had a desire to cross over, they would have done it long ago and Mr. Shivappa had also made unsuccessful efforts to wean them away.

As far as the two rebel MLAs, Mr. Manju and Mr. Bharati Shankar, were concerned, the duo was perhaps eager to join the Congress. The issue of Mr. Manju and Mr. Bharati Shankar was before a committee, he said.

On the controversy being created by Mr. Manohar Kadolkar, the BJP MLA from Uchagaon in Belgaum district, regarding the implementation of the Mahajan Commission report, Mr. Shettar said he had already talked to the legislator concerned.

Mr. Manohar Kadolkar had made it clear that he was only pleading for implementation of the Mahajan Commission, under which certain areas including Yallur village were scheduled to go Maharashtra.

Mr. Shettar said there was no controversy as far as the BJP in Karnataka and the Karnataka State Government was concerned, with both of them having taken a categorical stand about the implementation of the Mahajan Commission report. Mr. Kadolkar was saying the same thing.

When his attention was drawn to the manner in which the issue was being raked up because of the repeated statements made by Mr Kadolkar, Mr. Shettar said he would talk to the legislator again. The party President, Mr. Basavaraj Patil Sedam, who was in Belgaum, would have talked to the legislator already, he said.

On the new controversy over a road sign being put up near Yallur declaring it to be a part of Maharashtra, Mr. Shettar said there was nothing new in it since the road sign was allowed to be there for the past 20 years. Only the Congress was trying to whip up a controversy over this event now, he said.

Mr. Shettar said he was trying to get more details about it. But, whatever information he had with him, revealed that the state government or the district administration had not taken any action about it so far. Why no action was taken to remove the road sign earlier was a mystery to him, he said.

He also blamed the district administration whose inept handling of the issue had spawned the latest controversy. If the Deputy Commissioner of Belgaum were to take note of the same, why was it that the road sign was not removed. There was no need for the district administration to have blown it into a big issue.

Mr. Shettar said he was not exactly satisfied with the district and police administration in Belgaum district. Both the Deputy Commissioner and the Superintendent of Police, he said, appeared to have had no clear idea of the ground realities in Belgaum and were quite bookish in their approach. Mr. Shettar said he had come across a recent instance where the ryots bringing fodder in their carts being harassed by the police. The Superintendent of Police was personally present to catch the owners of the carts and levying fine for bringing the fodder.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Southern States
Previous : Minister inaugurates fourth bridge school under
           CAP project
Next     : 'AP creating problems in border districts'