Irked Siddaramaiah hits back at Janardhan Poojary

BELAGAVI: A day after former KPCC chief B Janardhan Poojary sparred with social welfare minister H Anjaneya, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah hit back at the veteran leader, saying people of Karnataka and central leaders of the party and not the Lokayukta were responsible for his rise to the top post.

Responding to Mr Poojary’s jibe that Mr Siddaramaiah was able to make it to the top post because the Lokayukta indicted BJP leader and then Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa in illegal mining scam, the Chief Minister said none in the state could attribute their rise to the top post to a role by the Lokayukta. He also refuted Mr Poojary’s allegation that he had weakened the institution of Lokayukta by establishing the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB).

The CM  said his government had initiated a series of measures to combat the acute drought and criticized leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, Jagadish Shettar, for issuing political statements sans substance. Issuing a stern warning to all top officials that they would be held accountable for any lapses in drought-relief initiatives launched by the state government, the Chief Minister said the situation was worse after the one recorded in 1972-73. While reviewing measures taken to tackle drought in Belagavi on Monday, he said the Maharashtra government released one TMC feet of water to the river Krishna today. In order to ensure that water released by Maharashtra reached the tail-end of Krishna river banks in Belagavi, he said another TMC feet of water must be released by Maharashtra.