Ministers, MLAs to be left out of KPCC panel

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE, JULY 6. Ministers and MLAs will be excluded from the new KPCC executive committee and list of office-bearers.

This was stated at a press conference here on Friday by the KPCC President, Mr. Allum Veerabhadrappa. Questioned about his own continuation as a minister of State, he said that the AICC President, Ms. Sonia Gandhi, appointed him as the PCC chief knowing full well that he was a minister. He thereby implied that Ms. Gandhi countenanced his continuation as a minister. However, Mr. Veerabhadrappa added that he valued his PCC presidentship more than the ministership.

He further said that the number of office-bearers and members of the executive committee would not be more than 49.

Over 15 ministers were till now office-bearers in the KPCC. They were directed to resign by the Chief Minister, Mr. S.M. Krishna, and all of them have complied with the directive.

With Mr. Veerabhadrappa ruling out ministers and MLAs from the new PCC, Congress leaders who were denied the party ticket to contest the elections can expect to be accommodated on the PCC.

Mr. Veerabhadrappa said that the list of office-bearers and members, which was ready, had to be cleared by the AICC. The AICC General Secretary in charge of the State, Ms. Ambika Soni, who would be here on July 11, would carry the list to Delhi.

The PCC President expected the Congress to perform better in the second round of elections to the urban local bodies to be held on July 8. Since the first round held on May 3, the Government had taken a good number of steps to benefit the rural and urban people. The corpus of the minimum support price mechanism for agricultural crops had been increased from Rs. 100 crores to Rs. 400 crores. Concessions had also been given to farmers who had obtained loans from cooperatives.

About the recent suicide by a farmer at Malur in Kolar District, he said that all the problems faced by the farmers and others could not be solved at once.

Second list of nominees to boards

A second list of Congress members to head 20 government boards and corporations has been finalised and is awaiting the approval of the Chief Minister, Mr. S.M. Krishna.

According to party sources, the announcement will be made after the second round of elections to the urban local bodies.

It is stated that some party leaders were insisting on being appointed as chairmen of some government agencies. The posts were hitherto going only to MLAs. One of them is the chairmanship of the Bangalore Development Authority.

The Government has so far appointed only five party members as chairpersons of corporations, boards or authorities.

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