From Our Special Correspondent 

Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, July 16: The State Legislative Assembly witnessed noisy scenes and trading of charges and insults with Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar lashing out at former deputy chief minister of the BJP, Dr C N Ashwath Narayan, calling him in singular terms as the “father of looters.”

The House witnessed noisy scenes during the discussion on the Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation scam involving Rs 187 crore soon after the question hour on Tuesday.

When BJP leader Ashwath Narayan accused Chief Minister Siddaramaiah of abstaining during the debate after being involved in “daylight robbery” in the Valmiki Corporation and insisted on the chief minister’s presence, Shivakumar rose to question the BJP leaders as to whether the BJP's chief ministers used to be present whenever Siddaramaiah was speaking as the then opposition leader.

Shivakumar taunted Ashwath Narayan that the “people have sent the BJP to sit in the opposition benches because of the corruption and misdeeds’” and accused the BJP leader of corruption.

Enraged by Shivakumar’s accusation that Ashwath Narayan was involved in corruption and misdeeds, the BJP leader demanded that the deputy chief minister must furnish proof and prove his charges as he had directly named him.

Shivakumar shot back by pointing out that he was not afraid and will come out with details of the scandals.

When Ashwath Narayan mentioned that the allegations against him by the Congress leader were “nothing but hit and run.” Shivakumar shouted back by pointing: “You had declared that all the dirt (scandals) in Ramanagara will be cleaned but you were unable to win even a single seat in Ramanagara.”

Shivakumar stated that the chief minister had been sitting in the session all along and just because he has gone out, the BJP leaders cannot hurl such baseless accusations.

BJP leader V Sunil Kumar took exception to Shivakumar levelling allegations against his party colleague. The deputy chief minister asked: “How did Ashwath Narayan accuse the chief minister of daylight robbery in the Valmiki Corporation?”

A comment by BJP leader terming the Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the government to investigate the scam as “Siddaramaiah Investigation Team,” to which the Congress leaders took exception and demanded that the statement must be expunged. Another BJP leader amended the comment as “Siddaramaiah-Shivakumar Investigation Team,” which caused noisy scenes.

Leader of Opposition R Ashoka sought to justify the comment on SIT and pointed out that Shivakumar and Congress party had attacked the CBI with names to which the deputy chief minister shot back by pointing out that JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda and BJP leader Ashoka had attacked CBI in the past.

The House had to be briefly adjourned when BJP and Congress leaders continued the shouting match and abused one another.

Meeting of Bengaluru MPs, MLAs on July 27

Earlier, the deputy chief minister promised to convene a meeting of MPs and MLAs from Bengaluru on July 27 to discuss improving coordination among various agencies of Bengaluru for better governance. 

Replying to questions by Leader of Opposition R Ashoka and MLAs Suresh Kumar and Ramamurthy in the Legislative Assembly, he said, “I agree with the concerns raised by the members of the House. There is lack of coordination among various agencies of Bengaluru.”

“We have done a lot of work to improve the inter-agency coordination over the last one year, but we have had only partial success. If the Opposition members cooperate, we can discuss various coordination issues such as traffic congestion, drinking water, waste disposal, street lights, tax collection, etc in the meeting,” he said.

Shivakumar said that a detailed discussion in the House or an elaborate meeting after the session can be held, to which the Speaker U T Khader suggested a meeting outside the House. 

The session would be over on July 26 and the meeting can be organised on July 27, Shivakumar said.

Rs 25,000 cr spent on Yettinahole 

Shivakumar, who is also the Irrigation Minister, said the total expenditure on the Yettinahole project till now was Rs 25,000 crore. “I am concerned if the water would reach Tumakuru district as siphoning off of the water along the canal using pump sets was a real threat,” he said.

Replying to MLA Jagadish Gudaganti, who raised the issue of water from Thungala-Savalagi lift irrigation project wasn’t reaching farmers downstream, he said, “90% of the water in the canals is getting siphoned off enroute canals in North Karnataka. Similar things may happen in Yettinahole too. Such things can’t be stopped by the officials, representatives need to create awareness about this among farmers.”

“Tail-end areas are not receiving water from irrigation projects in several areas of the State including Mandya, Hassan and Bagalkote. 50% of the water is being siphoned off even in lift irrigation projects. We can introduce a legislation to stop this, if the House permits,” he said.

Shivakumar said: “We send water via lift irrigation projects, but people pump that water for another 10 km. It defeats the very purpose of the projects. We have analysed how to tackle this problem. KRS water doesn’t reach Malavalli. Gadag district doesn’t get water even 20 years after the canal was built. If everyone supports it, we can pass a legislation to check pilferage,” he said. 

BJP MLA C C Patil agreed and requested him to bring a legislation at the earliest. 

Water inflow into Cauvery basin reservoirs

The deputy chief minister gave details of the inflow of water to the Cauvery basin reservoirs.

“Harangi is receiving 12,827 cusecs, Hemavathi 14,027 cusecs, KRS 25,933 cusecs, Kabini 28,840 and the total inflow is 56,626 cusecs. Karnataka has to release 40 tmc of water to Tamil Nadu. As per our records at Biligundlu, 6 tmc of water has flown to Tamil Nadu. The daily flow to Tamil Nadu has reached 1.5 TMC per day. With good rains, it won’t be an issue,” he added.