Hubballi: Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah seems keen on nurturing his Badami consitutency , which elected him in the recent assembly poll when the people of Chamundeshwari turned their backs on him.
Visiting the constituency for the second time since the poll, he supervised various development works on Wednesday , apparently unfazed by the fact that the projects he has sought permission for in eight letters to the state government have found no mention in the Budget presented by Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy.
While he is expected to stay in Badami town for two days this time and hold several meetings with officials and Congress leaders, he announced that he would visit the constituency at least twice a month in future. A few houses for his stay in the town have been shortlisted by Congress leaders but no decision has been taken as yet on any one of them. In the meanwhile, the home of a PWD assistant engineer is being renovated for him temporarily.
Showing he means business, Mr Siddaramaiah took officials to task at the taluk panchayat meeting during the day, and ordered the ZP chief executive officer to suspend the in-charge chief engineer of the rural drinking water supply department on learning that 63 water plants had been defunct for the last eight months. He directed the ZP officials to repair the plants immediately and warned that they could attract criminal action if they had misused the funds released by the government for the scheme.
Reviewing the infrastructure problems, including roads and the underground drainage system in tourist destinations, Mr Siddaramaiah also warned of punitive action against the officials if they failed to maintain a proper diary of work done by them on a day-to-day basis and showed it to him at the next meeting.
Warning that he would pay surprise visits to supervise the pending work, he regretted that rampant corruption was playing havoc in government departments and depriving people of services due to them.
