Better coordination: CM calls meet of six district bigwigs

Shyam Sundar Vattam/NT

Bengaluru: In a bid to establish better coordination between ministers and MLAs, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will chair a meeting of ministers, incharge ministers, and legislators of six districts on Monday.

This is the effect of a letter written by a group of Congress legislators alleging lack of cooperation of ministers in responding to their needs, to the CM and seeking convening of a Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting.

As known to everyone, Siddaramaiah held the CLP meeting and heard the grievances of party legislators, and also gave instructions to ministers to address to the problems of the former on priority.

The lawmakers charged some ministers with an indifferent approach to their demands and wanted things to be set right before it assumed serious proportions.

Going a step ahead, senior Congress leader and Koppal MLA Basavaraj Rayaraddi demanded the evaluation of the performance of the ministers to hold them accountable for their actions.

He had slammed the behavior of some junior ministers claiming they had no respect for senior MLAs. As part of this exercise, the CM will hold discussions withministers, district-incharge ministers, and MLAs of six districts, Tumakuru, Yadgir, Chitradurga, Bagalkot, Ballari, and Dharwad, tomorrow (Monday) in two installments, from 11 am to 2 pm and again between 4 pm and 7 pm.

Siddaramaiah is expected to hold discussions on various issues pertaining to government departments, letters issued by MLAs, responses of the ministers, and the steps taken by district-in-charge ministers to address the grievances of local lawmakers.

For the sake of convenience, the CM has allotted districts to the ministers who were in no way connected with the districts or region.

For instance, N.S.Boreraju has been made in-charge of Kodagu district, K.N.; Rajanna of Hassan, Ramalinga Reddy of Ramanagar, Dinesh Gundu Rao of Dakshina Kannada, Zameer Ahmed Khan of Vijayanagar and K.J.George of Chikkamagaluru.

So, the connection between the district-in-ministers and the ministers with the local legislators would not be as strong.

The MLAs of Mysuru District are familiar with Social Welfare Minister Dr H.C. Mahadevappa and Agriculture Minister N.Chaluvarayaswamy with legislators of Mandya district.

To strike a perfect coordination among them, the CM has decided to convene a meeting and plans to cover all 31 districts.

This is also important given the approaching Lok Sabha polls scheduled to be held in April/May 2024. Sources close to the chief minister told News Trail that this was part of the promise made to the legislators by the CM, and no special importance needs to be attached to it.

The meeting would serve as a platform to bring the ministers, district-in-charge ministers, and lawmakers to one platform and initiate an open discussion on their problems or demands.

The ministers must promise the CM that the work of MLAs would be done without giving excuses, said sources adding that if not done, this would be reviewed at the next meeting and also brought to the notice of the high command about the laxity in addressing the problems of MLAs.