New Ayukta: CM Siddaramaiah feigns ignorance on Governor Vala's snub

Mysuru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was noncommittal when asked to comment on the Governor rejecting the government’s recommendation on appointing Justice S R Nayak as the state’s Lokayukta, on Wednesday.

 “I have not yet seen the file,” was all he said, speaking to reporters on arrival in a special flight at the Mysuru airport, accompanied bty KPCC president, G Parameshwar and cooperation minister, H S Mahadevprasad to pay homage to former minister ,Chandraprabha Urs, who passed away  here Tuesday evening.
Paying tribute to Ms Urs, he recalled that she was the eldest daughter of former Chief Minister , Devaraj Urs and had won assembly elections twice from Hunsur constituency, before she was elected MP of Mysuru.

“ She served in Ramakrishna Hegde’s cabinet as sericulture and social welfare minister. Born in a political family, politics was in her blood,” he noted. Referring to her accident, he said she was in a lot of pain.

“She had already lost her husband, Mohan Raj Urs and son , Ajay Urs, and is now survived by a daughter, Anupama and a son, Manjunath. Her contribution to Hunsur  and the state was huge. Her passing away is a big loss for the Congress,” he added. Asked if she had aspired to become a member of Rajya Sabha, he said, “I am not aware of it.”

On submitting a report on drought to the Centre, he said he had not yet completed his tour. “ From Thursday  we will be visiting Chikballapura, Chitradurga and Tumakuru. Once we are done with the tour we will decide,” he added.

Bill to bust superstitions likely soon
l  Reacting cautiously to the animal sacrifice episode in Shivamogga district, law and parliamentary affairs minister, T. B. Jayachandra on Wednesday said that the state government was exploring the possibility of enacting an Anti-superstition bill in the days to come.  Speaking to reporters after the Cabinet meeting, he said, “The state government is committed to bring this Act, but the bill is getting delayed as the government is critically examining the issue of defining belief and blind belief. We are not interested in bringing such a bill in a hurry which might actually hurt religious sentiments. Our aim is not to hurt sentiments, it is to prevent superstition being practised in the state.” He added that the social welfare ministry had been roped in to define the nature of belief and blind belief. “Social welfare ministry had prepared a draft bill and sent it to the Law ministry for its approval, we are looking into it. It might take some more days before we come up with a draft final bill, which will be discussed in the cabinet, and then it will be tabled in the legislature session,” he said.