Bengaluru, Mar 31: In a major political development in Karnataka, Rural Development & Panchayat Raj (RDPR) Minister KS Eshwarappa today approached Raj Bhavan with a formal complaint against Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa’s ‘direct interference’ in the affairs of his department.
Eshwarappa met Governor Vajubhai R Vala with a 5-page letter describing “serious lapses and authoritarian way of running the administration” by Yediyurappa.
“I would like to quote important decisions taken by the CM recently...by sanctioning huge funds on the request of the MLAs to the tune of Rs 774 crore under RDPR Department by bypassing Minister-in-charge," Eshwarappa stated.
Apparently, the Chief Minister’s Office exerted pressure on the RDPR principal secretary to issue a government order for the release of funds which was “stayed by me on the advice of State Party President and other senior leaders of the party,” Eshwarappa stated.
On March 4, Eshwarappa alleged that works worth Rs 460 crore were sanctioned by bypassing him.
Although the two allocations and another worth Rs 65 crore were stayed by Eshwarappa, it was superseded by the CM. "I have registered my strong objection through a letter highlighting the indiscriminate sanction of funds to various MLAs/persons in violation of rules, but it was of no avail," Eshwarappa stated.
Eshwarappa has also written to BJP national general secretary Arun Singh, who is in charge of the party’s affairs in Karnataka. In that letter, Eshwarappa alleged that “substantial” allocation was made to constituencies headed by non-BJP MLAs. Moreover, the Finance Department, controlled by Yediyurappa, was yet to release Rs 2,398 crore allocated to the RDPR department.
The Finance department, according to Eshwarappa, was sanctioning huge funds in the form of special grants.
"The above actions...has put me in an embarrassing situation in the eyes of our party MLAs and party workers, who are very critical about the allocation of special grants to the constituencies belonging to opposition party MLAs," he stated.
The MLAs are complaining that "adequate grants are not being allocated for the development of their constituencies, in spite of having our own party government in the state,” he added.
Eshwarappa said that he had brought this to the notice of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and other senior party leaders.
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