Amid disagreement between the ruling coalition partners — Janata Dal (Secular) and Congress — over appointment of chairpersons of boards and corporations, Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on Sunday partly cleared the list given by the Congress for these posts.
While the Congress had submitted a list of 19 legislators to be nominated for boards and corporations, the Chief Minister cleared 14 names and they will hold Cabinet-rank posts. He also cleared the names of eight legislators (from a list of nine submitted by the Congress) to be appointed as parliamentary secretaries holding the rank of Minister of State.
The name of M.A. Gopalaswamy is missing from the list of parliamentary secretaries approved by the Chief Minister.
The list released by the Chief Minister’s office on Sunday, however, has no mention of appointments of K. Sudhakar as chairperson of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board, Sharanabasappa Darshanapur as Deputy Chairman of Planning Board, V. Muniyappa as the Chief Minister’s political secretary, and Ajay Singh as State’s Special Representative in Delhi as they had become a sticky point between the coalition partners.
The other nominations that seem to be on hold include that of T. Venkataramanaiah (Karnataka Road Development Corporation), S.N. Subba Reddy (Karnataka Silk Industries Corporation), N. A. Haris (Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation), and S.T. Somashekar (Bangalore Development Authority).
JD(S) leaders had expressed disappointment over the Congress announcing the list publicly without consultation and also the party’s eagerness to nominate chairpersons of boards coming under its Ministries, especially in the Transport Department.
New heads of boards/corporations
B.K. Sangameshwar (Karnataka Rural Infrastructure Development Corporation)
R. Narendra (Karnataka Food and Civil Supplies Corporation)
B. Narayan Rao (Karnataka Forest Development Corporation)
Umesh K. Jadhav (Karnataka State Warehousing Corporation)
T. Raghumurthy (Hutti Gold Mines Ltd.)
Yashwanthrayagoud V. Patil (Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Drainage Board)
B.A. Basavaraj (Karnataka Soaps and Detergents Ltd.)
B. Shivanna (Karnataka State Electronics Development Corporation)
S.N. Narayanswamy (Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Development Corporation)
Muniratna (Karnataka Skill Development Corporation)
Shivram M. Hebbar (North Western Karnataka Road Transport Corporation)
B.S. Suresh (Karnataka State Small Industries Development Corporation)
Laxmi R. Hebbalkar (Karnataka State Minerals Corporation)
T.D. Raje Gowda (Malnad Development Authority)
Parliamentary secretaries
K. Abdul Jabbar
Anjali Nimbalkar
Ivan D’Souza
Mahantesh S. Koujalagi
Roopakala M. Shashidhar
K. Govindraj
K. Raghavendra Basavaraj Hitnal
D.S. Hulageri