Hubballi: Calling CM Siddaramaiah a puppet of the Baldota group, senior BJP leader, Jagadish Shettar claimed on Friday that he had intentionally avoided taking a decision at a recent meeting of the state wildlife board on restoring the conservation reserve tag for the Kappattagudda forests to help its mining operations in the region.
Arguing that the board did not need to empower the Chief Minister on giving the forests a special status, Mr Shettar , who was speaking to reporters here, demanded, "Is the state wildlife board meeting a Cabinet meeting to ask the Chief Minister to take a final decision on the special status for the forests? Why did the government wait for three days after the meeting to declare its stand on it? Was it waiting for the high court to give its order to stay the decision? The government should have filed an objection against the stay or made its stand clear before the court when the matter came up for hearing.”
