BELAGAVI: PWD Minister Satish Jarkiholi said there is a “CD factory” in the state that is involved in honey-trapping political leaders, and it needs to be exposed.
Responding to Minister K N Rajanna’s statement that attempts were made to honey-trap him, Jarkiholi said an investigation would be done if the minister files a complaint. “There is still time to lodge a complaint against the attempts being made to honey-trap leaders.
Only powerful leaders are often targeted in honey-trap cases,’’ he said. He, however, didn’t feel the need for a CBI investigation into the honey-trap cases. The police can handle them and identify those behind the conspiracy, he said.
Reacting to BJP MLA Munirathna’s allegations against Deputy CM D K Shivakumar at a press conference in Belagavi on Saturday, Jarkiholi said there is no point in making allegations in such cases, but there is a need for a police investigation into it.
He said according to Rajanna, more than 40 leaders may have been honey-trapped, but the actual number could be much higher.
When asked about Shivakumar’s remark that “If someone says ‘Hi’, why do you reply with ‘Hello’?” Jarkiholi said nobody would be caught or trapped if they had the willpower and experience to tackle such situations. If someone is already alert, even if “Hi” is sent ten times, he won’t respond with “Hello,” he said.
On the ongoing Kannada-Marathi tussle in Belagavi, he said the Kannada-Marathi linguistic conflict that existed 30 years ago is no longer there. The government should control such conflicts through policies and programmes, he added.
To a question on the demand of Kannada organisations to ban the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES), he said banning MES would not help resolve the issue as new organisations could emerge under different names and continue their activities.
On the Maharashtra government’s implementation of its schemes in border areas of Karnataka, the minister said these schemes were not necessarily beneficial to the Marathi-speaking population in Karnataka. While Maharashtra may announce schemes, not everyone would benefit from them. In contrast, the Karnataka government’s schemes reached all linguistic groups.
The state has been implementing the MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) projects at regular intervals in border regions. Previously, official documents were available in different languages, but now they are being provided in Kannada, he added.