BENGALURU: Former chief minister
Siddaramaiah appeared to have the upper hand in the first
coordination committee meeting here on Thursday, as the panel resolved that the JD(S)-Congress coalition government, headed by chief minister
H D Kumaraswamy, will continue all of his government’s flagship schemes and implement the promises he had made in his February 2018 budget.
Siddaramaiah chaired the meeting, which was attended by Kumaraswamy, deputy chief minister G Parameshwara, AICC general secretary Karnataka in-charge K C Venugopal and JD(S) national secretary general Danish Ali.
“The meeting resolved to continue all our flagship schemes and implement all the programmes announced in the budget 2018-19,” Siddaramaiah said after the hour-long meeting. When TOI sought to know whether the schemes that will be continued includes the controversial free bus pass scheme announced for students from primary school to post-graduate students, Siddaramaiah shot back: “When I say budget promises, it includes everything. I need not specify every single programme.”
Siddaramaiah revealed the five-member panel also agreed to fill at least 30 chairpersons posts in boards and corporations within the next 10 days. Like ministerial berths, he said, these posts will be shared between Congress and JD(S) in 2:1 ratio. Of the total 82 boards and corporations, the Congress will get 55 of these statutory bodies. The
Congress chairpersons will enjoy cabinet or minister of state rank.
One of the members of the panel, on condition of anonymity, said Kumarswamy at the meeting insisted that they quickly fill all the vacancies in boards and corporations to quell dissidence activities as it was hurting the image of the coalition government. “It was decided to offer at least two key posts to supporters of former ministers H K Patil, M B Patil and Siddaramaiah and accommodate others based on seniority and caste,” the member said.
Sources said the members discussed how to better coordination between the alliance partners. “We also discussed how the ministers can coordinate better and work for the overall development of the state,” sources said.
