Food and Civil Supplies Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao was in for a pleasant surprise as the Opposition members in the Legislative Council referred to him as the “handsome Minister” of the Siddaramaiah government.
Blushing with embarrassment, the 43-year-old Mr. Rao thanked them for their compliments. However, he refused to give in to their demands with respect to his department.
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Minister of State for Infrastructure and Information Santosh S. Lad won praise in the Legislative Council for his efforts in heading the team that rescued Karnataka’s pilgrims from the flood-ravaged Uttarakhand.
The Council on Monday adopted a resolution congratulating him. The resolution, proposed by Leader of the House and the IT & BT Minister S.R. Patil and seconded by Leader of the Opposition D.V. Sadananda Gowda, hailed Mr. Lad’s efforts.
The resolution was taken up following a suggestion from Mr. Gowda and Janata Dal (S) floor leader M.C. Nanaiah. Earlier, the House paid tributes to Uttarakhand victims and the former Speaker
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M.V. Venkatappa who passed away recently.
Sadananda at his sarcastic best
Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council and the former Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda was in his element when Health and Family Welfare Minister U. T. Khader categorically declined to heed to the request of Janata Dal (S) member Ramakrishna to upgrade a primary health centre in Koppa village, Maddur taluk.
He kept on pleading with the Minister to upgrade this PHC, but Mr. Khader stood his ground. When other Opposition members asked why he was not budging, Mr. Khader blamed it on a decision taken by the previous BJP government not to upgrade new PHCs for three years.
And pat came Mr. Gowda’s rejoinder: “Minister sir, when you (government) have made it your single-point agenda to reverse all the major decisions taken by the previous BJP government, including the State Budget, what prevents you from changing a small decision made by that government related to PHCs?”