Congress convention a damp squib: Kumaraswamy

Mysore, Sep 6 (UNI) Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy today said the Congress convention, organised in the city on Sunday to mark the merger of Siddaramaiah-led AIPJD with that party, failed to produce even a whimper, let alone create a storm that will shake the JD(S)-BJP government in the state as claimed by the Congress leaders.

Speaking to reporters at Dadakallahalli village in this district where the Chief Minister stayed overnight to ''personally experience the problems faced by people in small villages'', he alleged that the Congress leaders were continuing their efforts to bring down the state government, but it would not work.

The proposed conventions to be organised by the JD(S) was not to counter the Congress convention, but to strengthen the party in the state, he justified.

Questioning the AIPJD merger with the Congress, Mr Kumaraswamy asked how could Mr Siddaramaiah merge a party on which he had no hold and without taking permission from former Chief Minister S R Bommai who founded the party.

''Mr Siddaramaiah has claimed that he quit JD(S) disgusted over the family rule of (JD-S President) Mr Deve Gowda. What about the Congress, is that party not known for its more than five-decade-old family rule,'' he asked.

The Chief Minister, who spoke to the villagers for a long time, accepted most of their demands and sanctioned on the spot a PHC and a milk dairy to the village. Young women from various villages would be trained in tailoring and the government would also take up marketing of the fabrics they produced. The government, which had sanctioned 500 new high schools, would sanction more such schools wherever it was required, he added.

Mr Kumaraswamy said the state government would speed up the drought relief work in the 102 taluks which were declared drought affected.

Speaking at Saligrama town in K R Nagar taluk, after laying foundation stone to various projects with an investment of Rs 150 crore, he said the state government would seek higher price for tobacco grown with the Union Commerce Ministry hike in the prices of tobacco to suitably compensate the farmer in Mysore district. He would speak to the Union Commerce Minister Kamal Nath in this regard.

He said construction of three lakh houses for the homeless people coming under BPL would be completed this year. A secretary level meeting would hold discussion on selecting the beneficiaries.

Mr Kumaraswamy warned officials of stringent action for dereliction of duty.

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