Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (SP)
Mangalore, Dec 6: Even after 18 months since the BJP government was formed in the state, nearly a third of the state ministers are yet to visit the Dakshina Kannada district to provide a thrust to the development works of their respective departments.
Out of the 33 ministers of the state including the Chief Minister, B S Yeddyyurappa, home minister, Dr V S Acharya and Dakshina Kannada district in-charge minister, Krishna J Palemar, are the two who have frequented the district the highest times. In case of the other ministers including the Chief Minister who visited the district, most of their time was spent in visiting pilgrimage centres rather than attending to their departmental programmes.
Even after the outbreak of chikungunya in the malnad areas of the district, health minister, Sriramulu, had failed to visit the district. After leaders passed comments about his lethargy, he finally visited the district once.
The district holds enormous promises on tourism front, and tourism minister, Janardan Reddy, was expected to provide impetus to exploring the tourism potential of the district. But, other than visiting the district once and giving some advice to the officials and making announcements, he has not done anything.
One would have naturally expected Anand Asnotikar, who is the fisheries minister, to visit the district often, as the district is located on the coast. He visited the district only once, and has failed to do anything to fulfill various demands for facilities put forth by the fishermen, other than giving assurances. He was not in the picture, when Karnataka State Fisheries Development Corporation opened its airconditioned outlet in the city recently.
The others who failed to show up are minister for agriculture, S A Ravindranath, minor irrigation minister, Govind S Karajol, revenue minister, G Karunakar Reddy, major irrigation minister, Basavaraj Bommai, animal husbandry minister, Revunaik Belamagi, small scale industries minister, Venkataramanappa, women and child welfare department minister, Narendraswami, department of civil administration and local bodies, Balalchandra Jarkiholi, small savings and lottery minister, Shivanagouda Naik and newly appointed rural development and panchayatraj minister, Jagadish Shettar.