Bengaluru: HD Kumaraswamy on Thursday said Tamil Nadu and Karnataka were not “Indo-Pak enemies” and the states can resolve the matter of proposed Mekedatu project on Cauvery River amicably.

The centre is expected to call a joint meeting of the heads of both the states in the next 10-15 days to iron out the differences.

Kumaraswamy met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday and thanked the centre for giving clearance to the state government for preparing the Detailed Project Report (DPR) of the Mekedatu project.

The two main Tamil Nadu parties– AIADMK and DMK– have been opposing the project and disrupting proceedings in both Houses of Parliament for more than a week.

The Rajya Sabha was adjourned Thursday over the issue.

To counter the protest, Karnataka lawmakers, cutting across the party lines, staged an agitation in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue inside the parliament complex.

Speaking to reporters after meeting the Prime Minister, Kumaraswamy said, “Yesterday, I had requested Union Water Resources Minister (Nitin Gadkari) to convene a meeting of chief ministers of the two states to resolve the matter. He agreed and directed his officials to fix a meeting”.

“In another 10-15 days, he may call a meeting,” the Karnataka chief minister appealed Tamil Nadu to resolve the matter amicably instead of fighting in courts.

“The fight is going on. This will not be solved legally. We have to resolve it amicably. Facing a legal battle is different. We are not Indo-Pak enemies, we are brothers. We have to discuss and resolve,” he said.

The JD(S) leader added the proposed Mekedatu project would be more beneficial to Tamil Nadu and requested the AIADMK and DMK not to make the issue a political one.

“I request political parties not to make it a political issue. We can sit and solve. It is not a big issue,” he said, adding the Karnataka government was abiding with the Supreme Court order.

“The state (Karnataka) is proposing to construct the Mekedatu dam to ensure that surplus water does not flow from Cauvery into the sea. Please accept our project,” Kumaraswamy said.

PTI

The Karnataka government on Wednesday presented the Bengaluru City Police with another 911 bikes to keep a check on criminal activities and to assist with increased patrolling, in addition to the existing 272 Maruti Suzuki Ertigas operating as Hoysala vehicles. The TVS Apache RTR-160 bikes that have been presented to the city police have cost the exchequer a sum of Rs 7.11 crore.

As opposed to cars, bikes can attend to crime scenes and access narrow roads faster.

Speaking at the event held in Vidhana Soudha, Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy said, “I hope the bikes will help the police in operating swiftly and will enhance their response to distress calls and chasing criminals, especially chain-snatchers,” adding that CCTV surveillance in the city will also be increased gradually.

He added, “For the police to perform their duties, there should be good infrastructure and facilities to support them. Many reports have been submitted in request of some development for the police department. Therefore, as a New Year gift, 911 motorbikes were given to them so that they can reach the scene of the crime on time and also avoid small incidents from turning into a big law and order situation.”

A report in The New Indian Express said that these vehicles will be redistributed to 108 local jurisdictional police stations, 44 Traffic Police stations, two women police stations and other departments like the CIty Armed Reserve and Intelligence Division.

A report in October had said that these vehicles were to be inducted for replacing some of the existing yellow Bajaj Pulsar bikes with cheetah-like spots which were introduced 16 years ago. Although the bikes had been sanctioned at that time, their induction took time since they had to be fitted with mikes, sirens and other accessories like walkie-talkies.

Senior police officials said that with this, each police station will get five bikes. While police stations with greater jurisdictional area will get six bikes, relatively smaller ones will get four bikes.

PTI

Nasheman News : Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on Thursday dismissed reports of a rift between coalition partners Congress and the JD-s, saying the two parties would contest the next year’s Lok Sabha elections together.

He added there had been no discussions on the seat-sharing arrangement between the two sides so far.

Kumaraswamy’s remarks come amid reports of a rift between the two parties who share power in Karnataka with the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) hinting at going it alone in the next year’s general election.

Talking to reporters here on his two-day visit to the national capital, the Karnataka Chief Minister said while there had been no talks of seat-sharing with the Congress, the alliance of the two parties was strong and would continue.

“There has been no discussion on seat-sharing with the Congress so far. When the discussion has not taken place, how can there be any question of a fight?” he said.

Earlier, the Bharatiya Janata Party claimed that it would form the new government in Karnataka by next week as it was in talks with 15 disgruntled MLAs from the ruling coalition.

“The alliance is strong and we will contest the Lok Sabha polls together,” Kumaraswamy said.

The Karnataka Chief Minister met Water Minister and Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Coal and Railways Minister Piyush Goyal and discussed various issues related to development of the state.

He also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and discussed the drought situation and various irrigation projects for the state.

Nasheman News : America’s oldest World War II veteran and the oldest man in the country, Richard Overton, has died. He was 112, his family said.

He died on Thursday, the CNN reported. 

He was hospitalised with pneumonia, his family member Shirley Overton said.

Richard Overton volunteered for the Army in 1942 and served with the 188th Aviation Engineer Battalion, an all-black unit that served on various islands in the Pacific.

In 2013 he said that he credited God for living so long and didn’t take any medicine and enjoyed his vices.

Talking to the media, he had said that he didn’t like thinking or talking about the war, saying he “forgot all that stuff”.

“I drink whiskey in my coffee. Sometimes I drink it straight,” he had said when he was 107. “I smoke my cigars, blow the smoke out; I don’t swallow it.”

Overton was a longtime resident of Austin, Texas. He lived on a street called Richard Overton Avenue — named after him.

In a statement on Thursday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott called Overton “an American icon and a Texas legend”.

“With his quick wit and kind spirit he touched the lives of so many, and I am deeply honoured to have known him,” Abbott said. 

“Richard Overton made us proud to be Texans and proud to be Americans.”

In 2015, Overton was the subject of a short documentary titled “Mr. Overton”. 

Rajasthan Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of all 25 Ministers including Chief Minister from Rajasthan State Assembly 2018. 5

Summary and Highlights

Criminal Background

·        Ministers with Criminal Cases:   9(36%) ministers have declared criminal cases against themselves.

·        Ministers with Serious Criminal Cases:   5(20%) ministers have declared serious criminal cases against themselves.

·       Ministers with declared cases related to murder: 1 Minister, Parsadi Lal of INC who contested from Lalsot Constituency of Dausa district, declared 1 charge related to murder (IPC Section 302).

·       Ministers with declared cases related to attempt to murder: 1 Minister, Ashok of INC who contested from Hindoli Constituency of Bundi district, declared 2 charges related to attempt to murder (IPC Section 307).

Financial Background

·       Crorepati Ministers: Out of the 25 ministers analysed, all 25 (100%) are crorepatis.

·       Average Assets: The average assets of 25 ministers analysed is Rs 15.48 crores.

·        Ministers with Highest Assets: The minister with the highest declared total assets is Anjana Udailal from Nimbahera constituency with assets worth Rs.107.87 crores.The top five ministers with highest declared assets are:                                                     

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party Name	Movable Assets (Rs)	Immovable Assets (Rs)	Total Assets (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Anjana Udailal	Chittorgargh	Nimbahera	INC	55,89,86,373	51,97,60,000	1,07,87,46,373  107 Crore+	Y
2	Vishvendra Singh	Bharatpur	Deeg Kumher	INC	10,68,65,948	93,84,00,000	1,04,52,65,948  104 Crore+	Y
3	Rajendra Singh Yadav	Jaipur	Kotputli	INC	12,93,84,115	31,09,14,000	44,02,98,115   44 Crore+	Y
4	Pramod Bhaya	Baran	Anta	INC	9,86,13,117	17,44,93,800	27,31,06,917   27 Crore+	Y
5	Ashok	Bundi	Hindoli	INC	16,99,83,668	9,13,27,500	26,13,11,168   26 Crore+	Y

Table: Top 5 Ministers with Highest Assets

·        Liabilities: A total of 19 out of 25 ministers analysed have declared liabilities. The details of the top 5 ministers are given below:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party Name	Total Assets(Rs)	Liabilities (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Ashok	Bundi	Hindoli	INC	26,13,11,168   26 Crore+	21,41,92,200   21 Crore+	Y
2	Rajendra Singh Yadav	Jaipur	Kotputli	INC	44,02,98,115   44 Crore+	14,20,84,332   14 Crore+	Y
3	Anjana Udailal	Chittorgargh	Nimbahera	INC	1,07,87,46,373   107 Crore+	12,72,31,887   12 Crore+	Y
4	Pramod Bhaya	Baran	Anta	INC	27,31,06,917   27 Crore+	7,71,96,819   7 Crore+	Y
5	Lalchand Kataria	Jaipur	Jhotwara	INC	8,86,01,000   8 Crore+	5,37,22,000   5 Crore+	Y

Table: Top 5 ministers with Declared Liabilities

·        Ministers with High Income:  3 out of 25 ministers analysed have declared their total annual income above Rs. 50 lacs. The details of these ministers are given below:

S.No.	Name	Party Name	Constituency	District	Total Asset (Rs)	Self –Source of Income	Spouse’s Source of Income	The financial year for which the last income tax return has been filed by minister	Total income shown by minister in ITR (Self+Spouse+Dependent) (Rs)	Self– income shown by minister in ITR (Rs)
1	Anjana Udailal	INC	Nimbahera	Chittorgargh	1,07,87,46,373  107 Crore+	Business	Income From Other Sources, Interest , Profits & Agricultural Income	2017-2018	2,35,78,955  2 Crore+	1,97,23,555  1 Crore+
2	Shanti Kumar Dhariwal	INC	Kota North	Kota	6,57,72,599  6 Crore+	Rent & Pension	–	2017-2018	51,67,250  51 Lacs+	51,67,250  51 Lacs+
3	Ashok	INC	Hindoli	Bundi	26,13,11,168 26 Crore+	Mining Business and MLA Salary	Dental Profession	2017-2018	50,82,175  50 Lacs+	42,32,175  42 Lacs+

Table: Top 3 Ministers with high income 

Other Background details (Education, Gender, Age)

·       Ministers’ Education:  8(32%) ministers have declared their educational qualification to be between 10^th– 12^th pass while 17 (68%) ministers have declared having educational qualification of graduate or above.

·       Ministers’ Age:  A total of 10(40%) ministers have declared their age to be between 31-50 years while 15(60%) ministers have declared their age to be between 51- 80 years.

·       Woman Minister: Out of 25 ministers, only 1 is awoman.

Bengaluru: Unhappy with the Congress’ ‘big brother attitude’ in the ruling coalition in Karnataka, JD(S) workers and local leaders have asked the leadership to contest all 28 Lok Sabha seats in the state in the coming Lok Sabha polls, party sources said.

Under the coalition arrangement, Congress and JD(S) had announced that they would fight the 2019 polls together.

JDS workers and local level leaders conveyed their position to the party supremo and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda during preparatory meetings in eight districts, the sources said.

Expressing their displeasure against the Congress, JD(S) workers have accused the party of not treating the junior partner in the ruling alliance ‘respectfully’, sources said.

Their attitude is like that of a ‘big brother’, they alleged and said that the Congress was “overlooking” the conditions agreed upon during the government formation. Confirming the development, former JD(S) MLC and spokesperson Ramesh Babu said party workers and leaders had opined that the JD(S) should contest all 28 seats on a ‘friendly basis’ in the coming parliamentary election.

“Workers feel that it is better to contest in all 28 parliamentary constituencies in Karnataka in the coming election,” he told.

The Congress and JD(S) reportedly have difficulty in seat sharing in most of the old Mysuru region constituencies, where JD(S) is a dominant force and Congress has its sitting MPs.

Stating that JD(S) had demanded 12 parliamentary seats, party sources said there was no positive response from Congress to this. Dismayed over Congress’ “big brotherly attitude”, citing issues that allegedly recently cropped up over appointments of heads to boards and corporations, the sources said the leaders and workers had suggested that since JD(S) is part of the coalition government, they could have friendly contests in all 28 seats, instead of levelling charges against that party.

Meetings have taken place in Bengaluru, Kolar, Chikkaballapur, Tumkur, Chikkamagaluru, Chitradurga and Mysuru, they said, adding that after January 3, Deve Gowda would elicit the opinion of party workers in the other districts. Congress and JD(S) that had fought bitterly against each other, especially in old Mysuru region, joined hands to form a coalition government after the May 12 assembly polls threw up a hung assembly.

PTI

 The Centre has decided to call a meeting of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu chief ministers soon to resolve the issue regarding the proposed construction of Mekedatu dam across the Cauvery river that led to stalling of Parliament proceedings last week.

The issue was discussed in detail by Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy in a meeting with Union Water resources and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday in Delhi.

“In the meeting, Gadkari said he was convinced that the Mekedatu project will benefit Tamil Nadu. The minister also assured that he will direct his officials to fix a meeting of chief ministers of the two states at the earliest,” an official spokesperson of the Karnataka government told reporters.

The Mahadayi water dispute between Karnataka and Goa was discussed in the meeting, but the Union minister said the matter is in court, he added.

Mr Gadkari has said he will call the meeting of chief ministers of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to discuss the implementation of the project, according to an official statement.

The Karnataka chief minister during the meeting brought to his notice that Tamil Nadu has raised objection against the project though it is beneficial to both states, especially for Tamil Nadu, the statement added.

He also requested Mr Gadkari to resolve the issue by calling the meetings of the chief ministers. “Gadkari obliged to call a meeting accordingly,” it said.

Mr Kumaraswamy told PTI that “we have asked the Centre to call for a meeting with the Tamil Nadu government so that the issue can be resolved.”

With the two main Tamil Nadu parties — AIADMK and DMK — protesting in Parliament opposing the Mekedatu project, Karnataka lawmakers, cutting across party lines, have planned an agitation Thursday in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue in the Parliament complex to counter the two parties.

The AIADMK and the DMK are agitating in both Houses of Parliament pressing for scrapping of the proposed dam project.

The Tamil Nadu government has also appealed in the Supreme Court on the matter.

Mr Kumaraswamy’s brother and PWD Minister HD Revanna as well as Karnataka Chief Secretary TM Vijay Bhaskar were also present in the meeting in Delhi.

Besides, these two water disputes, the Karnataka chief minister also discussed with the Union minister about the pending national highway projects in the state.

He sought commencement of the construction of the six-lane Bengaluru-Mysure Road, for which the Karnataka government has already acquired 85 per cent of the required land.

The chief minister requested Mr Gadkari to direct the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to expedite preparation of the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for construction of the Bengaluru-Hassan section of the NH-75.

Mr Kumaraswamy also urged the Union minister to ask the NHAI to complete the work between Hassan to Gundya via Sakaleshpura (NH-75) and four-laning of the NH-206 from Tumkur-Honnavara.

The chief minister also sought the construction of a four-lane divided carriageway between Hassan to Holenarasipur and sanction of a six-lane elevated highway in Hassan town limit on Belur-Bilikere of the NH-373.

PTI

Newly inducted ministers of the H D Kumaraswamy-led coalition cabinet is likely to be announced Thursday, party leaders said, as they grappled with problems of dissent and portfolio allocation.

The leaders also sought to downplay the dissidence within the party, even as efforts were on to quell the disgruntlement that had emerged after the recent rejig.

Congress general secretary in-charge of Karnataka K C Venugopal held a series of meetings on portfolio allocation, which has become another concern as the new ministers lobbied for plum departments.

Several senior ministers were not willing to shed key portfolios they have, adding to the worry, party sources said.

Speaking to reporters after meeting the congress legislature party leader Siddaramaiah, pradesh congress chief Dinesh Gundu Rao and deputy chief minister G Parameshwara among others, Venugopal said the portfolio list is being sent to Congress President Rahul Gandhi, for his approval.

“On portfolio allocation of new ministers, I have discussed with the leaders and took their view. It will now begoing for the approval of the Congress President, who will clear it very soon,” he said.

Terming the meeting as “fruitful”, Rao said Venugopal was likely to meet Gandhi Wednesday evening or night in Delhi, and he will finalise the portfolio allocation.

He said reports about ministers holding two or three portfolios not willing to give up some key departments for others, were “unnecessary speculation.”

According to reports, the meeting between top party leaders Wednesday was not cordial, as Parameshwara expressed displeasure over being asked to give up some key portfolios that he has, by Siddaramaiah.

He currently has departments of Home, Bengaluru city related affairs, Youth Affairs and Sports.

Denying such reports, Rao said “Everything has been discussed in a very good manner, I too saw reports about some clash.. they are all baseless.Some sections of media have also said that portfolios have been decided and they are outwith a list.

From our side all proposals are there, ultimate decision will be taken by Congress President Rahul Gandhi in consultation with Venugopal and us. I think by tomorrow youwill have the announcement,” he added.

The leaders also sought to downplay Ramesh Jarkiholi’s threat to quit as party MLA, sulking over being dropped as minister, and open expression of displeasure by another senior legislator Ramalinga Reddy on not being considered during Ministry expansion.

“You don’t worry about anything, our house is very much intact, everybody will be in Congress itself and nothing will happen,” Venugopal said in response to a question.

Calling Ramesh Jarkiholi a “good leader”, he expressed confidence that he will remain in the Congress.

Reddy is also a “loyal” Congress leader, the party general secretary said, adding that “definitely, we will honour him and nothing will happen.”

In an effort to quell the dissidence, Siddaramaiah had on Tuesday met Reddy and tried to pacify him, but did not meetwith success with Ramesh Jarkiholi who is incommunicado.

According to Congress sources, Venugopal, who met a delegation of Reddy’s supporters including Bengaluru Mayor and corporators, convinced them to wait till Lok Sabha polls.

However, he has given the task of convincing Ramesh Jarkiholi to his brother and newly inducted Minister Satish Jarkiholi.

“I will meet him (Ramesh) today or tomorrow. I will find him and meet him,” Satish Jarkiholi told reporters.

As Ramesh Jarkiholi is likely to make public his decision to quit as Congress MLA Thursday, Rao, describing him “hundred per cent Congress man”, said he has got “Congress blood in him, so I don’t see him going to a communal party like BJP.”

Ramesh Jarkiholi, accused of hobnobbing with the BJP, along with R Shankar, an Independent lawmaker who showed reluctance to be an associate member of the Congress, were dropped during the rejig.

In the much-awaited exercise, the six-month old Congress-JD(S) coalition ministry headed by Kumaraswamy was expanded Saturday with the induction of eight members from the national party.

Agencies