H.D.Deve Gowda, MP and national president of the Janata Dal (Secular), has said that the State government is left with no other option but to hand over the investigation of the lottery scam to the Central Bureau of Investigation. “It is not the counter strategy of the State government to silence the Opposition parties. The government had no other way,” he told presspersons at Arsikere on Wednesday.
The former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy had raised the issue about one-and-a-half years ago itself. Then, the government did not initiate any action. “The BJP was also silent. Those who remained silent even after Mr. Kumaraswamy wrote to the government on the issue should take the blame for the scam,” he said.
Stating that it was only the poor who had been suffering because of lottery, he said “In the interest of poor people, Mr. Kumaraswamy banned the arrack, when he was the Chief Minister. The lottery has been ruining hundreds of poor families.”
Regarding the railway projects, Mr. Deve Gowda said Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu should speed them up. Letters had been written emphasising the need for constructing a railway underpass at Hassan and upgrading the railway station at Holenarsipur, he said.
Welcome move
Mandya Staff Correspondent reports:
K.S. Puttannaiah, Melkote MLA, has welcomed the decision of the State government to order a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the lottery scam.
Speaking to presspersons here on Wednesday, Mr. Puttannaiah said the single-digit lottery kingpin, Pari Rajan, and his associates were operating the racket in the State since 2007.
“However, the former Chief Ministers H.D. Kumaraswamy, B.S. Yeddyurappa, D.V. Sadananda Gowda and Jagadish Shettar had all failed to initiate any measures to curb the racket,” he said.
