BENGALURU: As Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa and other senior ministers participated in the ground-breaking ceremony for construction of a new Anubhava Mantapa in Basavakalyan, former additional chief secretary S M Jaamdar sharply criticised Chief Minister Yediyurappa for hurrying the project. “There is no tender, no estimate, the project has not been approved. Why is this being done in such a tearing hurry?’’ he questioned.
Jaamdar, who is from the Lingayat community, asked what was the need to hurry with the inauguration. “Invitations for the ceremony were distributed on January 2 and 3, and the Anubhava Mantapa was inaugurated on January 6. Is it being done with an eye on the Basavakalyan assembly bypoll which are due any time?” he asked.
The Election Commission is expected to come up with an order in a few days. As a rule, by-elections have to be mandatorily completed six months after the seat falls vacant, which means it will have to be completed before March 24, and the declaration is due any time.
He said, “In the budget, they have proposed to set up Anubhava Mantapa at a cost of Rs 500 crore, and released Rs 100 crore to Basava Kalyan Development Board. Why are due processes not being followed?’’
He also criticised the government advertisement of the ceremony, which says ‘Sanatana pragatipara parampareya maarusrishti’.
What went down
Veteran litterateur Go Ru Channabasappa, under whose chairmanship a committee was constituted for overseeing the construction of the Anubhava Mantapa, in his speech expressed his displeasure about the title of an advertisement that appeared in Kannada newpapers about the event, titled aanatana pragati para chintana marusrusti (the rebirth of ancient progressive thinking). He said that it should have been titled sharana pragatipara chintaneya marusrusthi (the rebirth of the progressive thinking of sharanas).
When KPCC working president Eshwar Khandre and other Congress leaders submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, requesting that the compensation for flood-affected farmers be released and to take steps to restart the Bidar Sahakari Sakkare Karakhane, the CM said that he was there for the foundation stone laying ceremony and does not want to discuss development work during the programme.
When the organisers were bringing a memento of Basaveshwara in a glass case meant for the CM, it fell and the case broke. The organisers brought out another memento of a bust of the thinker without a frame and gave it to the CM.
Deputy leader of the JDS in the Assembly Bandeppa Kashempur and MLCs Vijay Singh and Aravind Arali were absent for the programme.
The CM seemed to bein a happy mood during the ceremony.