Bengaluru: Facing the heat over the Cash for vote scandal, CM Siddaramaiah and BSR Congress MLA from Kudichi P. Rajiv on Tuesday denied allegations of the CM making a financial commitment for constituency development in return for support of independent members in the Rajya Sabha polls.
In his reply to the notice served by Assembly secretary S. Murthy on the directive of the ECI, Mr Siddaramaiah asserted that he had never promised monetary assistance for the development of constituencies represented by independents.
"Apart from routine letters from various MLAs that may have been received by CM which may be getting processed in the normal course, no specific files are being moved or processed for developmental works in constituencies represented by independent MLAs," he clarified.
Similarly, Mr Rajiv while denying the allegations made by JD (S), said in his reply to Assembly secretary Mr Murthy that the media had ‘cooked up’ this information which had been attributed to him.
Mr Rajiv and seven other Independents had reportedly met Mr Siddaramaiah and energy minister D.K. Shivakumar on May 28. After meeting them, Mr Rajiv and Mr Shivakumar made statements about the independents supporting Congress candidates in the Rajya Sabha polls.
Siddaramaiah gives an earful to lax officials
Chief Minister Mr Siddaramaiah has taken officials, especially those in the land survey section, to task for making poor people run from pillar to post for getting survey work and land records done.
He compared them to bed bugs and said that they were sucking the blood of poor people, who visit their offices. When some officials struggled to come out with statistics sought by the Chief Minister, Mr Siddaramaiah threatened to postpone the meeting itself.
The CM who chaired the meeting of district in-charge secretaries, directed the officials to ensure that the benefits of social security schemes like old age pension and widow pension reach the beneficiaries. He expressed concern over depleting forest cover in the state, despite government spending lot of money on afforestation programmes.
