BENGALURU: At a time when ST Nayaka community leader and PWD Minister Satish Jarkiholi appears to be projecting himself as the next chief minister, the community’s religious heads and MLAs met Chief Minister Siddaramaiah here on Wednesday.
They discussed the alleged Rs 187.33-crore scam in the ST Development Corporation that rocked the government a few months ago, and led to the resignation of community leader B Nagendra, who resigned as ST Welfare minister and went to jail. The ED filed a chargesheet in court on Wednesday, mentioning him as the mastermind in the scam.
However, community leaders appealed to the CM to release grants to the ST Development Corporation immediately, to ensure implementation of schemes for the beneficiaries. They also urged the CM to take steps to check the menace of vested interests getting fake ST certificates by falsely claiming that they hail from the ‘Talavar’ community.
Sri Prasannanandapuri Mahaswami, president of Rajanahalli Valmiki Gurpeeth near Harihar, MLAs BM Nagaraja, T Raghumurthy, Basanagowda Thurvihala, Raja Venugopal Nayak, Dr Srinivasa, former Karnataka Public Service Commission member GT Chandrasekharappa and other leaders were part of the delegation that met the CM Siddaramaiah, who holds the ST Welfare portfolio after Nagendra resigned, responded positively, and promised to resolve the ST community’s grievances by calling a meeting immediately.