Bengaluru: When Mr Siddaramaiah assumed power as CM last year. freedom fighter, H.S. Doreswamy was one of those considered his conscience keepers. Mr Doreswamy's clout was such that Mr Siddaramaiah went to his house and took his advice to keep the tainted out of the cabinet. Sixteen months later, the equations have changed. Mr Doreswamy is on a dharna for the last 16 days asking the Siddaramaiah government to initiate action against land sharks who have encroached on government land.
The 96-year old apolitical fighter, came out with a hard-hitting reaction against the Siddaramaiah government pussyfooting on the issue. "I do not know what happens to the best of people whom I have seen in my life. Once they come to power they start to indulge in dilly-dallying tactics. This government is not implementing recommendations of the committee headed by A T Ramaswamy or even Retired Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde's report on illegal mining. Now I feel Mr Siddaramiah is not an exception to this age-old habit of rulers."
He quickly added that though he still shares a healthy relationship with Mr Siddaramaiah, the latter had became reclusive. "I understand that he must be under tremendous stress not to act on these reports from various quarters. But we are not going to keep quiet until he fulfils his promises made before the elections. He had stressed that he will not succumb to any pressure from any mafia. So to prove his words, I want to tell him that this is the time to act as his government has slept on these issues for almost 16 months. Our efforts to wake him for the last 16 days seem to have failed but we are determined to wake the government up," he snapped.
The nonagenarian claimed that he had written three letters to the CM since the agitation was launched a fortnight ago and Mr Siddaramaiah had replied to one of these letters stating that the state government had suspended some officials who allegedly indulged in the scam. "These half hearted efforts will not satisfy us. Our demand is to dismiss them from the job itself.“
