Bengaluru: Congress MLA from Malavalli reserved constituency, Narendra Swamy and Social Welfare Minister H. Anjaneya were involved in an unseemly spat over allocation of funds for Scheduled Caste-Scheduled Tribe sub-plan schemes on Tuesday.
The two leaders reportedly used abusive language at a meeting called with SC/ST MLAs, MLCs and MPs to discuss budgetary allocation for SC/ST sub-plan grants for 2016-17. Mr Narendra Swamy took the Social Welfare Minister to task for not approving tenders, which have been waiting for his approval for a year.
The MLA also criticized the minister for not doing enough to improve the pathetic condition of SC/ST hostels across the state and for not utilising funds meant for SC/ST development under the scheme.
“You (Anjaneya) are not releasing sufficient grants for the development of SCs and STs. Crores of rupees remained unspent in 2014-15 and 2015-16. You are also unfair to some SC/ST reserved constituencies while releasing funds,” Mr Narendra Swamy reportedly told the minister. The SC/ST MLAs from the Congress party intervened and requested the two leaders to be calm. Later, they apologized for their unruly behavior.
