From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru

Bengaluru, Nov 24: More than a year after assuming power, Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah has finally ended the uncertainty over appointments of chairpersons to State-owned Boards and Corporations in the State and the State Government has issued orders for appointments through the respective departments.

Chairpersons to 90 State-owned Boards and Corporations coming under different departments were appointed through appointment orders issued on Monday.

All the appointments have been made for a period of 18 months to enable other aspirants to take over the bodies later.

The appointments were cleared by the Congress party high command with the rider that sitting MLAs and those who were defeated in the assembly elections would not be considered and only party workers would be given preference.

As many as 20 women Congress workers have been appointed heads to various government entities.

A good number of office-bearers of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee have been awarded for their hard work.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and KPCC President Dr G Parameshwara, who held several rounds of consultations to prepare a list of candidates, had even consulted the AICC in charge for Karnataka Digvijaya Singh before finalising the names.

The Chief Minister and KPCC Chief had obtained approval for the final list from the party high command last week.

10,000 Aspirants

Nearly 10,000 Congress leaders and workers have been aspiring for the posts of chairman and members to boards and corporations.

However, the appointments have triggered discontent among various loyal Congress workers and leaders with few women members staged a protest in front of the party office.

Two incidents of discontentment were the alleged suicide bid by a senior Congress leader and his son on Saturday and Housing Minister M HAmbareesh’s anguish over the failure to accommodate close aides on the list.

The Chief Minister, while speaking to reporters, made it clear that there was no need to consult all leaders in the party at the State-level as the party high command’s approval had been obtained.

Prominent leaders appointed included L Hanumanthaiah for Kannada Development Authority; former Minister Rani Satish for Hutti Gold Mines; Asegodu Jayasimha for Jungle Resorts, Jalaja Naik, ex-MLC, for Banjara Development Authority; Ramachandrappa, former Bengaluru Mayor, for Devaraj Urs Corporation; Mallajamma, ex-MLC for Dr B R Ambedkar Development Corporation; Rajendra Sing Babu for Karnataka Film Academy; film actress Bhavana for Jawahar Bal Bhavan Society.