Kannada

Bangalore, May 19 (UNI) Karnataka Kannada and Culture Minister H S Mahadeva Prasad today said he will resign the ministership if Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy ordered.

When newsmen sought his reaction on remarks made by Forest Minister Chennigappa, he said he spoke to the Chief Minister in this regard. Mr Chennigappa had charged that Mr Prasad and Municipal Administration Minister had leaked to the media the cabinet discussion on the proposal to give one crore saplings to a trust run by religious heads recently and had demanded their resignations.

Replying to queries he took exception to Mr Chennigappa's remarks that he was anti national by opposing the move and said he could not be called so as he hailed from a family of freedom fighters.

Besides, he was educated in the prestigious Ramakrishna Ashram, known for inculcating discipline, he added.

He iterated that he supported the move to distribute saplings and could not understand reasons behing Mr Chennigapps's attack. " I will not oblige him by resigning the post and will definitely do so if Chief Minister asked," he remarked.

Answering another question he denied there was any political motive behind the cabinet decision to refer the former Minister H Nagappa's killing while he was in custody of forest brigand Veerappan. Mr Nagappa's family had right to know reasons behind his killing and hence the government decided to order a probe by Central Bureau of Investigation, he defended.

He said the Vaidyanathan Commission, which probed the death, had recommnded providing relief to the victims of Veerappan and Nagappa's family members and the government was initiating the measures accordingly. The commission had also recommended setting up of a monitoring cell in the state Intelligence Wing of the police department. The Cabinet also decided to dismiss a Police Inspector who had failed to resist the forest brigand while Nagappa was abducted, he added.

UNI