From Our Special Correspondent

Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, Aug 7: Karnataka chief minister B S Yediyurappa, who was sworn in on July 26 after the collapse of the 14-month-old H D Kumaraswamy-led JD(S)-Congress coalition regime and has been single-handedly shouldering the responsibility of running the State, had to cut short his Delhi visit following Union Home Minister and BJP national president Amit Shah’s directive to rush back and tackle the flood situation in the northern Karnataka districts.

The chief minister, who had flown to Delhi on Monday night, managed to call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Surface Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and various other central ministers besides Amit Shah, was not able to get the green signal for expansion of his cabinet even though he won the trust vote in the State Assembly on July 29 without any hiccups.

Yediyurappa, who had carried a list of 15 ministerial probables with him for discussion with Shah and Modi, was told by the BJP national president to return to the State without even discussing the cabinet expansion.

The chief minister, who spoke to reporters at his Dollars Colony private residence soon after landing from Delhi, said he was asked to return to the State and visit the flood-affected places forthwith. The cabinet expansion can wait and held later, he was reportedly told.

CM unable to meet President

“I planned to call on President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday evening. But I had to cancel the meeting and return to Bengaluru as relief and rehabilitation of the affected people in the flood affected people of the 15 districts in North Karnataka, especially Belagavi, Raichur, Yadgir, Vijayapura and Kalaburagi being the worst affected,’’ he said and announced that he will fly to Belagavi immediately for an aerial survey and discussions with officials and local leaders.

He said that he would be staying in Belagavi and visiting the other affected districts during the next 2-3 days.

The chief minister indicated that he will return to Delhi again on August 10 or 11 and hold discussions with the Central leaders on the expansion of his ministry.
With August 15 being the Independence Day, it is doubtful whether the Chief Minister will be able to go for expanding his one-man cabinet before that even though it could happen on any day between August 12 and 14 to enable sufficient time to the newly inducted ministers to rush to their districts to participate in the I-Day celebrations.

But it is strange that 76-year-old Yediyurappa is functioning single-handedly holding meetings after meetings and rushing to different places, including a brief visit to Mandya to pay his last respects to Café Coffee Day founder V G Siddhartha, who committed suicide, and also to Delhi for discussing his cabinet formation and had to pay homage to party leader Sushma Swaraj, but without accomplishing his mission.

Though there are instances of a chief minister functioning without any ministers to assist him and share his responsibilities, Yediyurappa will perhaps be the only chief minister to function alone for almost a month if the ministry expansion gets delayed beyond August 15.

But, being a workaholic in power or without, Yediyurappa has been bravely carrying on his duties and responsibilities and giving directions to officials from the places he has been visiting.

Water releases to Hemavathi, Tunga, Vijayanagara Canals

Yediyurappa directed the State’s Water Resources Department officials from Delhi on Wednesday to release 14.53 TMC water from August 7 for 25 days to the Hemavathi canal system following copious rains in the catchment areas.

The inflow to the Hemavathi reservoir on August 6 was 17,623 cusecs and outflow was 5000 cusecs. Hemavathi catchment area is receiving good rainfall. Hence good outflow to the river is expected.

As sufficient storage is not available in the reservoir, it is intended to provide water only for drinking purpose by filling water in tanks and anicuts and not to provide water for irrigation.

As good rainfall is expected in the catchment area, the Government has agreed to release 14.53 TMC of water to the tanks and anicuts in Hassan,Tumakuru and Mandya districts through the Hemavathi project canal system along with releasing water to Tamil Nadu.

Meanwhile, water is also released into the Tungabhadra project and Vijayanagara Canals as the inflow has increased in Tungabhadra Reservoir. The inflow to Tungabhadra reservoir was 23,052 cusecs on August 6 and ou flow at Tunga reservoir in Shivamogga was 77,000 cusecs.

As the outflow from Tunga reservoir is increased, the storage at Tungabhadra dam is expected to rise to 30 to 40 TMC. Hence, it has been decided to release 9800 cusecs of water to Left bank and right bank canals of Tungabhadra reservoir and Vijayanagar canals, an official statement said.