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Karnataka: Government, Party and CM change but pathetic plight of floodwaters victims worsens further!



It's exactly 56 days since the BS Yediyurappa led Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) government came into existence but the plight of tens of thousands of floodwater victims in the Northern districts continues to worsen with no indications of the situation changing for better.

The devastation due to incessant heavy rains is not limited to the Northern Karnataka alone. Many districts of the old Mysuru, Coastal and Malnad region have also experienced the fury of rain God in the worst possible manner. But succour to the people in distress continues to elude like a distant mirage.

Interestingly and unfortunately this happens to be a sad state of affairs in spite of the same party government, both at the state level as well as in the centre.The state Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) had all along been propagating for the same party governments at the state and centre. Such drum beating was no less during the previous general elections to the state Assembly during May 2018 polls.

In spite of all such tall claims, the state electorate favoured a split verdict thus depriving the saffron party the corridors of power. But such adverse conditions didn't allow the party strategy managers to rest in peace.Ever since the HD Kumaraswamy led Janata Dal-Secular(JD-S) and Indian National Congress(INC) coalition government came into being most of the BJP leaders including BS Yediyurappa in the forefront became astrologers! They started predicting the fall of the alliance government throughout the 15 months tenure.

The attempts to topple the government enjoying the required majority were also no less. According to HD Kumaraswamy: The BJP friends had been on the job of making all-out efforts to topple my government from the very first day of forming the alliance government...and they at last succeeded in their seventh continuous effort...

Thanks to the 14 Congress and Three JD-S legislators who took the challenge of quitting their membership to the state Assembly, the ploy became handy for the BJP to unseat the short-lived coalition government.
Although BS Yediyurappa was sworn in as the chief minister, he remained the lone cabinet minister till 20 August to expand his cabinet. Till then he single-handedly toured the entire floodwaters affected districts as a one-man army!

No doubt such a noble gesture showered accolades to the septuagenarian leader, the dashing tours' didn't make any sense to the suffering people who were already embroiled into multiple problems.
After waiting for more than three weeks to form the cabinet the CM for the fourth time took more than three days to announce the portfolios. Both, cabinet formation and allocation of ministries also had their teething woes.

After these measures, the CM took almost a couple of weeks to declare the in-charge for various districts. Even this announcement ran into rough weather as many of them were not happy with the allotted districts.The new district in-charge ministers swung into action by making a whirlwind tour of the floodwaters affected parts and trying to console the people whose lives were also washed in the floodwaters.

Initially, the people who had lost their fields, cattle, properties including the dwellings and were compelled to find shelter in rescue centres had a sigh of relief. They were under the impression that the bad days are soon going to be over.

Unfortunately, all such fond hopes were shattered into nightmares as mere goodwill gesture visits by the Ministers didn't lead them far away from their miseries!
On the other hand, for many leaders of the ruling BJP, personal ambitions became much more important rather than the woes of the poor people who elected them.

Umesh Katti, Hukkeri MLA in Belagavi district is sore for not being made a Minister. He has expressed his anguish by not being present during the new CM's maiden visit to the district for touring the flood-affected regions.He also preferred to stay away from the district party legislators' meeting called to review the measures undertaken for the rehabilitation of floodwaters affected people.

Balachandra Jharkiholi, Arabhavi BJP MLA from the same Belagavi district also chose it wise to abstain the same meeting. He took such a stance in spite of being made the chairman of the state-level Karnataka Milk Federation(KMF) for being left out of the cabinet.

In between Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Finance Minister and Amit Shah, Union Home Minister made aerial visits to the flood-affected regions. But both of them did not announce any interim relief to the surprise of everyone.These visits were later followed by those of the central official teams. But till date, the central government has not announced compensation of even a single rupee!

The winter session of the state legislature was earlier supposed to be held at the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha in Belagavi. Thanks to the floodwaters havoc burdening the lives of the district, now the winter session is being held in Bengaluru itself!
Today Jagadish Shettar, Large and Medium scale industries Minister faced the wrath of victims in Belagavi. He had convened a meeting at the District Commissioner(DC) office to listen to the woes of the floodwaters victims'.The attendees were upset for the district in-charge Minister had no concrete solutions for immediate relief to the victims. As they failed to ensure any assurance, they raised slogans like Shame, Shame...

The Minister sensing much more trouble thought of winding up the meeting but the farmers were not prepared to relent. As the Minister tried to make way with the help of the police, one farmer tried to sleep in protest before the Minister's car. He was forcibly evicted and the Minister allowed to go away.The social networking sites are already abuzz with severe criticism of the state and central BJP governments against their apathy to the state people whose lives are marooned with water.

Siddaramaiah, Congress legislature party leader and the former chief minister is much candid: The state is witnessing the weakest chief minister in the form of BS Yediyurappa. He has no freedom to form a cabinet and allocate ministeries. Now he has no appointment from the Prime Minister's Office to meet the PM and submit a memorandum for getting relief to the flood victims...

The state people returned 25 out of the 28 Lok Sabha constituencies to the BJP candidates. Now even the same party government is in place, but what have the suffering people got in return?

The Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Bengaluru for Chandrayaan-2 but never uttered a word about the pathetic plight of floodwaters victims, forget making any announcement to come to their aid.To sum up, the government, party and CM have changed in the state but the pathetic plight of the victims of floodwaters continue to plunge in wilderness!

-Manohar Yadavatti

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