Kumaraswamy holds videoconference with gram panchayat members to mark first anniversary

Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy marked the completion of his first year in office yesterday by holding a videoconference with more than 96,000 elected representatives of panchayat raj institutions spread across the state.

Instead of celebrating the occasion, Kumaraswamy flew to the Abdul Nazir Sab State Institute for Rural Development in Mysore from where he interacted with the elected members of gram panchayats, taluk panchayats and zilla panchayats gathered at the 176 taluk headquarters through satellite communication facilities.

Kumaraswamy said he chose against holding grand celebrations to mark the JD (S)-BJP coalition’s first anniversary. “It is an occasion for us to introspect where we have gone wrong”, he told the elected representatives before fielding queries from them. “Instead of blowing our trumpet, we have reflect on how and why the administration had failed to reach the benefits of the Government’s welfare programmes to the poor rural masses”, he said.

Kumaraswamy not only reiterated his Government’s resolve to waive agricultural loans obtained by farmers from co-operative banks, but also said he was committed to prohibit sale of arrack in the State. The Chief Minister’s promise to ban arrack came after a woman elected representative complained about the disastrous effect consumption of arrack was having on the rural populace.

The Chief Minister admitted that he was not completely happy with his performance as Chief Minister in view of his inability to fulfill all the assurances. However, he promised to make an effort to reach his goal in the remaining eight months of his tenure at the helm of the coalition Government. He also added that a 20-month term for a Chief Minister was too short to achieve any tangible results.

Earlier, the Chief Minister sought to make it clear to coalition partner BJP that it need not harbour any apprehensions on transfer of power to the saffron party. “Let there be no doubt over JD (S) transferring power to the BJP after I complete 20 months in office in accordance with the power sharing agreement”, he said.