Veteran Congress leader H.K. Patil on Thursday alleged that 1.07 lakh files were pending with the government at apex level offices, which was a clear indication that the governance had been badly hit.
Participating in a debate in the Assembly on the motion of thanks to the Governor’s address, Mr. Patil maintained that it would take a minimum of five years for the government to clear such a huge pendency of files.
Seeking to remind the BJP government of the file-clearance campaign taken up for the first time by the then Chief Minister R. Gundu Rao in the 1980s, the Congress leader urged Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa to take up a similar campaign to fast track the file-clearance process.
“Taking up a campaign to clear the files on a war footing will reduce corruption,” Mr. Patil said, while alleging that “presently, without corruption, no files are moving ahead. Either you need political influence or money to move the files.”
He also sought to dispute the claims made in the Governor’s address to the legislative Houses in which there is a reference to the State finances being good. Pointing out that Mr. Yediyurappa had cited the tough financial situation as the main reason for withdrawing funds allocated to constituencies of some of the Congress and JD(S) MLAs, he wondered how could the government say, in the Governor’s speech, that the finances are good.
Ramaswamy critical of releasing development funds in the name of BJP workers
Senior Janata Dal (S) member A.T. Ramaswamy on Thursday took serious exception to the new trend of the BJP government releasing development funds in the name of party workers. Raising the issue in the Assembly, Mr. Ramaswamy referred to the instances in which grants for various development works had been issued in the name of party workers. He wondered if it had any sanctity as those workers were not accountable to government institutions.
It was nothing but misuse of pubic funds, he alleged.
