From Our Special Correspondent

Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, Oct 18: Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar has clarified that Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials were gathering information regarding the alleged MUDA site allotment scam and wondered how it can be termed raids.

Answering questions from media persons in Bengaluru on Friday, he said:“ED may be gathering information, how can you call it a raid. They may ask for certain documents and review them. What else can be done?”

“No tweaking of the documents is possible as all the documents in the case are public already. We will fight this legally and place the truth before the public,” he asserted.

When asked about his statement that ED raids were politically motivated, he said, “The case is in the court now. As per the information I have received, they have asked for certain information and I don’t know whether those documents have been given or not. Perhaps, they may have gone to MUDA to collect those documents themselves.”

On JD(S) leader and Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy’s criticism on the revival of the controversial Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises (NICE), he posed a counter question: “Let Kumaraswamy first disclose his assets along the NICE road, I will talk about it at an appropriate time.”

Replying to a question on Kumaraswamy’s allegation that SIT was ‘Shivakumar Investigation Team’, he said, “Kumaraswamy needs to remember me every once in a while, else he will have sleeplessness. He and his brothers keep remembering me hence. They are searching for my documents, but all my documents are with the CBI. Had he asked me, I would have given it to him myself.”

Replying to a question on the ruling Congress party’s candidate for the ensuing by-election for the Channapatna Assembly constituency, Shivakumar said: “Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and I myself are the candidates and we are fighting on our party’s Hand symbol.”

Govt will hold discussions with Panchamasalis

The deputy chief minister made it clear that the government doesn’t want injustice to any community and said another round of discussion would be held with the Panchamasalis to sort out reservation issues.

“Our government believes in justice for all communities. The reservation issue is in court and the government can’t intervene at this juncture. We will hold discussions with Panchamasalis in the days to come,” he said after a meeting with leaders of Panchamasali Lingayat community at CM’s home office Krishna.

“The CM has clearly told that it is not possible to give a timeline for the reservation. The previous BJP government hurt many communities in the process of hurrying through reservation. The BJP government later filed an affidavit in the court that it would not implement the new reservation. In this backdrop, our government can’t intervene in court matters,” he added.

“Model Code of Conduct is in effect now and we told the leaders of Panchamasali community that we would call them for a meeting once the elections are over. We understand their urgency and we will hold discussions with them in the future,” he said.

When asked about the threat by the Panchamasali leaders that they would continue their protest, he said, “We can’t say anything to those who want to protest.”