Siddaramaiah, Bommai spar over delay in allocating portfolios to ministers

Bengaluru, Nov 23: The data of the ‘Socio-Economic and Education Survey’, popularly known as caste census, is “safe” and “intact”, according to K Jayaprakash Hegde, chairman of Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes.

His clarification comes following the emergence of documents suggesting that the original report of the caste census is missing from the office of the Commission.

Kicking up a storm, the BJP questioned the credibility of the caste census that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah wants to take forward. 

In October 2021, when the BJP was in power, Hegde had written to the government stating that neither the main report nor a photocopy was available in sealed boxes that were opened.

He also brought to the notice of the government that the signature of the member-secretary was missing from the available documents. 

In August 2022, a letter was written to Transport Secretary Dr N V Prasad who was the member-secretary of the Commission when the caste census report was finalised. The letter sought Prasad’s response to his missing signature. In this letter, too, the Commission states that the original report and its photocopy were not available in its office. 

“It is baffling to note that after spending crores of tax payers’ money to prepare this caste census report, we do not have the original copy,” BJP MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal said in a tweet and asked if the government had filed a police complaint or acted against officials responsible for this. 

Former BJP MLA V Sunil Kumar asked the Congress government to clarify before the start of the winter session of the legislature on December 4. “If a government document has gone missing, did someone steal it? Will the government get a fresh report done?” he said. 

But according to Hegde, the caste census data is not missing. “The data is 100% correct and intact. The data has the signature of the then chairperson, members and member-secretary. The data has been uploaded safely in our software developed by the BEL,” he said. 

Hegde explained that the caste census has two parts -- the data and a resultant report. “In the report comprising recommendations that had to be given to the government, some worksheets are missing,” he said. 

The BJP also taunted the Congress for being divided. “In this government, the CM and DyCM have different stands. Who should people believe?” Kumar said while Yatnal accused the Congress of “orchestrating this spectacle” for the Lok Sabha polls.

A far-right member of Israel’s legislature has called for burning down the Gaza Strip and blocking humanitarian aid to the besieged area amid the occupying regime’s brutal onslaught on the coastal silver, which has so far claimed more than 12,000 Palestinian lives.

Nissim Vaturi, deputy speaker of the Knesset and a member of the legislature's foreign affairs and security committee, made the call on Friday and said Tel Aviv must hold off on providing Gaza with relief aid until the more than 200 Israelis captured by Palestinian resistance movement Hamas are released.

Vaturi claimed that the Israeli regime has been “too humane” after the extremist cabinet of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu — under the international community’s pressure — approved the entry of two trucks of fuel per day into Gaza.

The fuel delivery was ordered to prevent the collapse of the war-ravaged city’s sewage treatment system, which risked a mass outbreak of viral diseases, as the besieged area is already beset by power outages and telecommunication disruptions.

“All of this preoccupation with whether or not there is internet in Gaza shows that we have learned nothing. We are too humane. Burn Gaza now, nothing less!” Vaturi wrote in a post on his X social media account.

“Don’t allow fuel in, don’t allow water in until the hostages are returned back!” he adds.

The Egyptian Red Crescent said 15 tons of diesel entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing from Egypt on Friday after the United Nations had warned of widespread starvation in the wake of intermittent shutdowns in internet and telephone services across the strip over the lack of fuel.

Bengaluru, Nov 24: Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar refrained from making a direct comment on Friday about the state cabinet's decision regarding the disproportionate assets case against him.

The State Cabinet on Thursday had held that the sanction given by the previous BJP government to hand over the case against the Deputy Chief Minister to the CBI was "not in accordance with law."

Shivakumar, also the Karnataka Congress chief, stayed away from Thursday's Cabinet meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

The Congress government is now expected to issue an order withdrawing the consent given to the CBI in the case.

"I saw in the paper (newspaper), I could not attend (the cabinet meeting) yesterday. Whoever has to speak on it will speak," Shivakumar told reporters here.

Noting that he was going to Telangana for two days for the election campaign there, he said, "if the party asks me to extend (campaigning), I will have to."

The High Court of Karnataka on Wednesday adjourned to November 29 the hearing of the appeal filed by Shivakumar against the sanction accorded by the previous government to the CBI to prosecute him in a disproportionate assets case.

The CBI informed the High Court on November 15 that the Supreme Court has directed the HC to hear the application filed by the investigating agency seeking vacation of stay granted on the appeal, preferably within two weeks.

A single judge bench had earlier dismissed Shivakumar's petition challenging the sanction of September 25, 2019 granted by the government to prosecute him.

Shivakumar then challenged it before the division bench which had stayed the single judge order. The CBI had filed an application for vacation of this stay.

Based on the Income Tax Department's search operations at Shivakumar's home and offices in 2017, the Enforcement Directorate started its own probe against him. Based on the ED investigation, the CBI sought sanction from the state government to register a case against him.

The state government had given the sanction on September 25, 2019. The CBI had registered an FIR against him on October 3, 2020.

The CBI has claimed that Shivakumar amassed wealth to the tune of Rs 74.93 crore, disproportionate to known sources of his income from April 1, 2013 to April 30, 2018, when he was the Energy Minister in the then Siddaramaiah-led Congress government (2013-2018).