Oppn. plans joint attack on Govt.

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE, JULY 15. The resumed sitting of the Budget session of the legislature commencing on Monday is expected to be stormy with the BJP, the main Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, set to bring about coordination among various Opposition parties to take on the Government on various issues, particularly its inaction to tackle the drought situation.

Keen to avoid the situation of the past when Opposition parties used to see in different directions, the Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, Mr. Jagadish Shettar, has already initiated talks with the Janata Dal(U), the Janata Dal(S) leaders and Independents in this connection. The exercise is to be followed up on Monday just before the session commences.

The drought situation in most parts of the State will present the first major issue for the Opposition to launch a united attack against the Government. The Opposition parties are likely to raise the issue in the form of an adjournment motion as soon as the House meets.

This was stated here on Sunday by Mr. Shettar, who feels the Government should have by now initiated steps to tackle the drought problem but it is still engaged in preliminary exercise of getting reports from districts.

Mr. Shettar, who was addressing a press conference, was critical of the Revenue Minister, Mr. H. C. Srikantiah, who had remarked that the Centre might not come to the rescue of the drought-hit State even before a formal request seeking assistance was made, and said this was absurd.

Before making such a criticism, the State should have fulfilled its part of the obligation by starting relief works. It was yet to get reports from the districts to prepare a memorandum for the Centre, he said. Mr. Shettar said there was no need for the State to presume it would not get funds from the Centre as its share to the State to meet such a situation had been fixed for the period up to 2005 on the basis of the recommendations of the 11th Finance Commission.

Another issue that will be taken up is the non-payment of compensation to families of farmers who had committed suicide after crops failed last year. The Government had not taken action to hold a magisterial inquiry and this had come in handy for it to delay the payment of compensation.

It should order early payment and provide relief by way of waiver of interest and rescheduling of farm loans, Mr. Shettar said.

Mr. Shettar referred to the problem faced by coconut growers who had been affected by mite menace and consequent loss of crops and fall in prices. The party would demand permission for coconut growers to tap toddy at least for two to three years.

The Government was accused by Mr. Shettar of directly encouraging the leak of excise revenues by not giving effect to its ``kara samadhan scheme'' providing for waiver of interest on arrears if the defaulters paid outstanding principal. The scheme announced a year ago had not been implemented because of pressure from the excise lobby, Mr. Shettar alleged.

Mr. Basavaraj Patil Sedam, BJP State unit President, Mr. D. V. Sadananda Gowda, Deputy Leader of the BJP in the Legislative Assembly, Mr. R. Ashok and Mr. K. N. Subba Reddy, MLAs, Mr. Aravind Limbavali, BJP General Secretary, and Mr. M. Srinivas, former MP, were present.

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Section  : Southern States
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