100 days of Dharam Govt: Devoted to crisis management

Moving From Crises Management To A Belated Focus On Development
Financial Express

BANGALORE: The Dharam Singh-led coalition government in Karnataka has completed 100 days and most of these have spent on crises management.

The government received its first jolt as a rice scam erupted soon after Mr Singh expanded his ministry. Though directed at the previous SM Krishna Congress government, it caused serious embarrassment to the new chief minister, who belongs to the same party.

The new government has also been criticised for mishanding several issues like the Common Entrance Test, for ignoring Bangalore’s infrastructure and industries in the state, delaying ministry expansion, for mishandling the Uma Bharti case and for the measures taken to “protect” Kannada movies.

Amidst all of this, deputy chief minister and finance minister Siddaramaiah presented a pro-farmer budget and took some pains to simplify the tax structure of the state from the previous 14 slabs ranging from 1 to 36 per cent down to seven, making way for the VAT, which will be introduced on April 1, 2005. The state finance minister also banned online lottery in the state and introduced rice at Rs 3/Kg for those below the poverty line.

However more recently, there has been a perceptible change in the attitude of the government. Chambers of industry had criticised Mr Singh for being pro-farmer at the cost of industrial growth and for not recognising the value of private sector involvement in the government, represented by the Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF).

At a recent public forum, state’s industry minister PGR Sindhia, did an about turn, and lauded the work done by BATF calling it a ‘remarkable’ organisation.

Not only this, Mr Singh called all the major heads of the companies in the state and discussed the projects that the government needed to take up on priority basis.

Due to heavy pressure from the business community, especially from the IT sector, the government announced some projects in the state to improve the state’s infrastructure. The state is expected to start work on the Bangalore International airport by October-November, which will benefit software professionals in the city who travel abroad regularly. Mr Singh also announced that the government would be finalising the Metro rail project in the next 15 days.

But the issues that still need to be addressed include the much awaited ministry expansion, which has been delayed because of internal party politics. Some JD-S MLAs, headed by HD Kumaraswamy, son of former Prime Minister HD Devegowda, even threatened to pull down the government if the delay continues.