AICC(I) to review ministers' performance

BANGALORE, NOV. 28. The All-India Congress(I) Committee will hold a two-day review of the implementation of the party manifesto by the S.M. Krishna Government in the 13 months it has been in office, here on Wednesday and Thursday.

The review committee will consist of Mr. A.K. Antony, former Kerala chief minister and CWC member, Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad, AICC(I) General Secretary in charge of the State and Mr. N. Janardhana Reddy, former Andhra Pradesh chief minister. Of the three, Mr. Antony has already arrived and met some of the ministers. The others will be here tomorrow morning.

The review meetings will take place at "Krishna", the home office of the Chief Minister.

According to party sources, though the two-day meeting is ostensibly to review the implementation of the manifesto, the committee will also go into the performance of individual ministers. The Karnataka ministers, who were hitherto answerable only to the Chief Minister, will have to appear before the committee with their files and performance reports.

It is for the first time the AICC(I) is undertaking such an exercise and it is being held on the orders of the AICC(I) President, Ms. Sonia Gandhi. The review should have been undertaken a few months ago, but it was put off owing to the Rajkumar abduction crisis.

At least six months ago, Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad had told a press conference here that the AICC(I) would review the performance of the ministers at the end of one year in office by the Government. The continuance of the ministers would depend on their performance, he had said. But none of the ministers had heeded his words. Mr. Azad had also said that the AICC(I) would not be going into the performance of the Chief Minister.

In the past one year, the Chief Minister has hardly touched his ministers, though some of them are known to be inefficient, arrogant, indifferent and even corrupt. There have been a few changes in portfolios. Ms. Rani Satish, who was first appointed Minister of State for Prisons and Parliamentary Affairs, was later given the high-profile portfolio of Kannada and Culture. Mr. M. Shivanna, who was first appointed Minister of State for Prisons, and Kannada and Culture, now handles Finance. The Prisons portfolio is now vested with the Home Minister, Mr. Mallikarjun Kharge. The important department of Infrastructure Development was taken away from the Minister for Large- and Medium-scale Industries and given to Mr. T. John, who had little work to do as Minister of State for Civil Aviation. There have been no additions and deletions from the large 43-strong (including Mr. Krishna) ministry.

Only a few days ago, the Chief Minister had told presspersons during the session of the State Assembly that there would be no reshuffle. But Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad came out with a contradictory statement. With the talk that a reshuffle in the ministry is imminent, some of the ministers who felt insecure have gone to Delhi to meet their patrons in the AICC(I). It is rumoured that the axe will fall on at least 10 ministers, including one or two members of the Cabinet.

Some of the ministers are stated to have secured copies of the party manifesto which they had hardly taken note of so far. It had been issued last year for the Assembly and parliamentary elections.

It may be mentioned that the manifesto had been drawn up in the context of the BJP and its allies' bid to regain power at the Centre and that of the Janata Dal in the State. In fairness to the Congress(I), it must be said that its Government has given effect to some of the important promises made in the manifesto in its first year. Some of the steps taken in terms of the manifesto are the constitution of an Administrative Reforms Commission headed by the former Law minister, Mr. Haranahalli Ramaswamy (the manifesto had said that it would be headed by the Chief Minister), amendments to the Panchayat Raj Act, fillip to Information Technology and its introduction at the school level, special schemes for Bangalore City, including improvement of the finances of the Mahanagara Palike (the Government is yet to keep its promise to provide it with funds), a new scheme to prevent harassment of property owners in fixing property tax which has taken the shape of the self-assessment scheme, taking up of a massive rural housing programme and the holding of a global investors' meet to attract investment.

The Congress(I) had promised to throw out the substandard and inefficient order of things in the State and bring it a new image. More than everything, it had promised the people five years of stability in governance.

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