BENGALURU: The state government machinery seems to have taken a severe beating with the ruling Congress and Opposition BJP-JDS alliance continuing their “padayatra politics” over the alleged scams in the ST corporation and MUDA.
Many top officials are concerned over the developments in the past few weeks with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and most of his cabinet colleagues keeping away from office, affecting the day-to-day government work. Several important decisions, including officials’ transfer, have been kept on hold for want of Siddaramaiah’s consent.
Statements of BJP and JDS leaders BS Yediyurappa and HD Kumaraswamy that Siddaramaiah will step down as CM soon over the alleged scams also seem to have had an impact on top officials in the government. “The officials were also eagerly waiting for the next move of Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot -- whether he would give permission to prosecute Siddaramaiah in the alleged MUDA scam or not, and if so when?,” a top official said.
Top state govt officials burn midnight oil
“It is time consuming to reopen files and documents related to various scams that happened under previous BJP and JDS governments and it will have a negative impact on the administration. But we were forced to reopen the files as Opposition parties are trying to corner the ruling Congress,” Cooperation Minister KN Rajanna said recently.
With the Congress threatening that it will expose the scams that took place during the rule of BJP and JDS in the past, along with leaders of the ruling party, top officials of some departments burnt midnight oil for several days looking for some files, according to a source. In this process, the role of some bureaucrats in the scams under the previous governments also came to the fore, according to a leader from the ruling party.
Political analysts observed that CM spending most of his time in his hometown of Mysuru last week indicated that the recent developments had demoralised him.