MANGALORE: Leader of the Opposition H.D. Kumaraswamy attributed the delay in filing his assets and liabilities with the Karnataka Lokayukta to the lack of documents furnished by land acquisition officers.
Addressing presspersons here on Tuesday, Mr. Kumaraswamy said a “small” piece of land in Bidadi that was in his name had been acquired for a pipeline project. While he has been compensated Rs. 20 lakh for it, he hasn’t received the required documents. “For the past month, I have been writing to the officials for information, but they haven’t replied. And I didn’t want to submit incomplete documents,” he claimed.
Mr. Kumaraswamy is one of the 29 MLAs and three MLCs in the list of legislators released by Lokayukta on Monday for their failure to make their assets public.
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On the issue of the nomination of the next JD(S) State president consequent to his resignation from the post after the party fared poorly in the recent byelections, the former Chief Minister said despite the insistence of nine party MLAs, he will not continue in the post. “A core committee of senior party leaders will be formed by Wednesday, and they will nominate a president within three days,” he said.
However, the formation of the core committee may run into hurdles, with former Minister P.G.R. Scindia suggesting up to 50 names as members. “50 members are too many, and it will be cumbersome for them to function. I have suggested that around 15 people should be there,” said Mr. Kumaraswamy.
Targeting Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, whose government recently completed 100 days in office, the JD(S) leader said: “There have only been promises and nothing else. He [Siddaramaiah] is following the policies of the previous BJP government that he had criticised as an opposition leader.”
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