Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (SP)

Mangalore, Dec 24: Continuing with the aggressive posture that was in consonance with the impatient tenor owned by the BJP towards Karnataka Governor, H R Bhardwaj’s successive missives to the government, higher education minister, Dr V S Acharya, challenged the Governor to make public any incriminating documents he has in his possession, relating to the list of corrupt ministers sent by him to the Chief Minister. He was addressing a press conference in the city on Thursday December 23.

While not willing to directly respond to the statements issued by Bhardwaj on this issue, he said that the Governor is free to bring out documentary proof that he may be having with him, relating to his charge that some of the state ministers are corrupt.

“The state government has not indulged in any unlawful acts. It may be noted that the power to allot discretionary sites under ‘G’ category to MPs and legislators vests with the Chief Minister. In the past, there had been Chief Ministers, who had allotted sites to even servants who worked at their homes. I want to assert that we have not crossed legal parametres anywhere,” he clarified. About the land denotification process, he said that the government has followed what was being done in the past, within the legally permissible limits.

Acharya said that Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board is entrusted with the task of making arrangements for providing land for setting up industries on easy terms. He said that the board had also worked within its objectives, and that there is no need to cast aspersions on its working. He blamed the opposition parties for creating confusions on these points among the general public, by giving wide publicity to certain issues through the media. He felt that the opposition parties are frustrated at the popularity of the BJP government and its development initiatives.

About the repeated claims by the Congressmen that the state government is conducting activities out of money received from the centre, Acharya revealed that the grant received this year from the central government has been notably less than the last year. He said that his government will be spending over Rs 2,500 crore for rural development in the coming months.

District in-charge minister, Krishna J Palemar, MLA, N Yogish Bhat, chairman of Karnataka Fisheries Development Corporation, Nitin Kumar, and party leader, Vishweshwar Bhat Bangaradka, were present at the press conference.