Cong MLAs flagging issues fine, says DKS

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar on Saturday tried to downplay any discontent among Congress MLAs as there had been reports that more of them had written to CM Siddaramaiah.

He had been responding to a mediaperson’s query on the same.

“They may have some problems. Why shouldn’t they articulate the same? It is you (the media) who are blowing it out of proportion,” Shivakumar said.

“Nothing has come out. They are not doing it in the open. We have our party discipline. There is nothing wrong in them expressing their pain over some issues,” he added.

The issue had first cropped up back in late July when Congress MLA from Aland BR Patil and Yelburga lawmaker Basavaraja Rayareddy were in the news for writing a letter to Siddaramaiah stating that ministers were being unresponsive to them.

Patil had even threatened to quit in a Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting thereafter, citing “selfrespect”.

Will address private bus owners’ issues: DKS

The Deputy CM also vowed to engage with private transport owners and try to figure out a solution for the issues they had been facing.

The comment comes in the backdrop of Federation of Karnataka State Private Transport Association (FKSPTA), an umbrella body of 32 associations, calling a ‘Bengaluru bandh’ on September 11.

Private bus owners have been especially unhappy ever since the launch of the Shakti scheme under which women from the state travel for free in most government buses.

The FKSPTA says their revenues have been down 40 per cent since the scheme was introduced back in June.

“That (issues faced by private bus operators) may well be the case. I know that not many people are choosing private (bus) operators these days. We need to find a solution regarding the same. I’ll speak with the chief minister about it. They (private transport persons) have visited me as well. In some places, there are no government buses, just private ones. Some mechanism needs to be formulated for the same. We’ll address the issue,” he told mediapersons.