Communalism: Eye on social media, Governor warns

Bangalore: Governor H. R. Bhardwaj disclosed on Wednesday that the Congress government had constituted a committee under the law minister to make the state’s administration transparent, acc­ou­nt­able and corruption-free.

In his address to the joint session of the state legislature, the Gov­ernor also said the government in­tended to create 10 lakh direct jobs in the next five years by upgrading the manufacturing sector under a new industrial policy to be unveiled on April 1. The idea was to ensure balanced and integrated industrialisation of the state, he explained.

In other announcements, Bhardwaj said laptops and electronic notepads would be provided free of cost to pre-university students to help them access the Internet and gain more knowledge.

Speaking of the need to “monitor” social media which, he claimed was being used to fuel communal tension in the state, he said, “My government is aware of the need to curb attempts being made by fundamentalist organisations to vitiate communal harmony in different parts of the state.

“Social media is triggering such events and this needs to be monitored.”

He, however, claimed that communal incidents had declined in the state after the Congress government came to power.

On illegal mining in the state, he said stringent measures had been taken to curb the practice and to also stop illegal transportation of the st­ate’s mineral wealth.

Prompt ac­tion had been taken on the re­port of the Lokayukta (prepared by former Lokayukta Santosh Hegde) on illegal iron ore mining to ensure that the guilty were punished, he added.

Next: Bhardwaj’s speech directionless: HD Ku­­m­araswamy

Bhardwaj’s speech directionless: HD Ku­­m­araswamy

Bangalore: Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly, H D Ku­­m­araswamy cl­ai­med on Wednesday that the Governor’s address to the joint session of the legislature had ex­posed contradictions in the working of the government.

While the Governor spoke of transparency and honesty in governance, Sid­da­ramaiah had himself taken secretaries and de­­puty co­m­m­iss­io­ne­rs to task during a me­eting on Tuesday for not functioning in a transparent manner, he noted.

And although Bhardwaj talked of respecting and em­po­wering the Lo­ka­y­ukta, the government had not even once during the last eight months honoured its recommendations.

“The government is promising to distribute laptops to PUC students when most rural students complain about lack of lecturers and infrastructure in their colleges. Instead of providing the required infrastructure, the government is trying to earn commission from companies manufacturing laptops in the name of distributing them to students,” he charged.

Dubbing the Gov­e­rnor’s speech di­re­c­tionless, he ob­served that the Chief Mi­ni­ster himself was dozing while it was being delivered.

“This only shows how seriously he took it,” he added.