BENGALURU: The Karnataka Government has constituted a six-member cabinet sub-committee to assess the droughts, floods and other natural calamities affecting the state, and to prepare an action plan under the chairmanship of Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda.
PWD Minister Satish Jarkiholi, RDPR and IT/BT minister Priyank Kharge, Agriculture Minister N Cheluvarayaswamy, Mines and Geology and Horticulture Minister S S Mallikarjun and Cooperation Minister K N Rajanna will be the other members.
The committee will also review the situation and carry out policy intervention to guide the government into taking a call. Soon, it is likely to hold its first meeting to assess the drought situation in the state due to shortage of rains.
It may be noted that Cheluvarayaswamy had recently stated that the government would moot cloud seeding if the dry spell prevailed across the state, affecting sowing activity. Also, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah recently nominated Gowda to represent the state in the GST Council. He was also the youngest chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) during the previous BJP government as the then speaker of the Assembly Vishweshwara Hegde Kageri had appointed him.
But he is privileged to chair the cabinet sub-committee being a revenue minister, and Gowda, considered as the Congress high command’s blue-eyed boy, has been allotted the role accordingly, sources said.