What went wrong for Srivastava?

What went wrong for Srivastava?

The Hindu

The last straw was the launch of the metro rail logo. Kumaraswamy was not invited for a function organised by a wing of the Government of which he is the head

BANGALORE: There is a view that K.N. Srivastava, who has been shifted out of the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (BMRCL) post, went into overdrive and began announcing plans bypassing Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy.

First, it was the announcement about the plans for the metro project no sooner than the Group of Ministers (GoM) at the Centre met (on March 9) in New Delhi to approve the project. Sources point out that this was a clear instance of jumping the gun on Mr. Srivastava's part, because there is every chance of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs rejecting the recommendations of the GoM.

Again, when the Chief Minister was in Delhi, and announced that 150 km of monorail was going to be part of the solution to Bangalore's transport problems, and work would begin by September 2006, Mr. Srivastava rubbished the efficacy of the monorail for Bangalore's problems. The last straw was the launch of the metro rail logo two days ago. Mr. Kumaraswamy was not invited for a function organised by a wing of the Government of which he is head. Protocol requires that any function of the Government to which the Governor is invited has to be done at the instance of the Chief Minister, or at least he is made aware of it.

"How can inviting the Chief Minister to a function organised by the Government politicise the event?" wonders the former Special Secretary (Environment) H.C. Sharatchandra, now a consultant working on eco-sanitation and civic issues. This is a flimsy excuse for a serious lapse, and is redolent of the days of the Bangalore Agenda Task Force, Mr. Sharatchandra says.