From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
Bengaluru, Sep 27: A day after the controversy in social media over Karnataka’s deputy chief minister Dr G Parameshwara, who also holds the home portfolio, availed the facility of ‘zero traffic’ while travelling in Bengaluru, the State Government has issued a circular on Thursday for providing not only ‘zero traffic’ but all privileges given to the Chief Minister to the Deputy Chief Minister.
The privilege allows for the Chief Minister’s and Home Minister’s vehicles and convoys to pass through roads where movement of other vehicles is temporarily stopped.
The circular clearly states that all privileges given to the Chief Minister are extended to the Deputy Chief Minister in the State, during visit to various places in the City as well to different parts of the state.
The privileges provided to the Chief Minister had been provided to deputy chief minister in 2004 during the Congress-JD(S) coalition government and deputy CMs in the BJP regime in 2008-13.
However, Congress leader B Ramalinga Reddy, who was the Home Minister in the Siddaramaiah government, had turned down the zero traffic facility citing that such facility would cause inconvenience to commuters in Bengaluru.
But on Wednesday, Dr Parameshwara said it was a privilege accorded to the Deputy Chief Minister.
“If others didn’t want it," he said, “That does not mean I should not have it."
"This is my decision. I know it all,” he said when told that his predecessors in the home ministry, including Ramalinga Reddy, had declined not to get the zero-traffic facility for himself while travelling within the city.
When Dr Parameshwara was asked why he was using the ``zero traffic’’ facility while travelling within the city, he had caustically remarked, “This is my privilege. Why are you jealous of it?’’
It may be recalled that the Dr Parameshwara had also served as home minister after joining the Siddaramaiah government in the previous regime while continuing as the president of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC).