Congress asks Ministers to improve performance

Karnataka Congress president G. Parameshwara and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah at the KPCC executive committee meeting in Bangalore on Saturday.

An executive committee of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee on Saturday instructed Ministers in the Siddaramaiah government to “show visible improvement” in their performance by expediting implementation of welfare schemes.

In the wake of “poor performance” of a few Ministers, the committee instructed Ministers to aggressively work and deliver services to people.

KPCC president G. Parameshwara, who presided the meeting, warned Ministers that the party would review their performance regularly. Housing Minister M.H. Ambareesh, in particular, has been told to take steps to ensure construction of at least 3 lakh houses a year. It was decided to conduct a survey of houseless households across the State.

It is learnt that Mr. Siddaramaiah presented his views and left the venue early for scheduled meetings with officials in the State Secretariat.

Boards & corporations

It was decided to complete the process of appointment of chairpersons, directors and members to all government-owned boards and corporations by the first week of October.

All district in-charge Ministers have been instructed to set up district-level statutory committees such as Ashraya committee, Aradhana committee and land tribunal committee before the first week of October.

Poll strategy

With elections to the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike council and gram panchayats to be held in less than eight months, the party discussed poll strategy and formed 25-member committees in each Assembly constituency to reconstitute GPs on the basis of population. The reports of the committees would be submitted to the government, Dr. Parameshwara told presspersons. Currently, funds are being allocated to GPs based on population and not based on the number of villages under their jurisdiction.

The State Congress chief said a committee comprising former mayors from the party had been set up to look into the issue of bifurcation of the BBMP. The committee’s report would be submitted to the government.

Visit to Bellary

Dr. Parameshwara said Mr. Siddaramaiah and 10 Ministers would visit Bellary on September 29 and take decisions on the development of the district. The Congress recently won the byelection to the Bellary (ST) seat.

The meeting condemned BJP president Amit Shah’s recent call for “freeing Karnataka from Congress”.