Bengaluru, 6 June

Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R Ashoka on Saturday slammed portfolio allocation in the DK Shivakumar-led government, stating that the Bengaluru Development portfolio, which was allocated to Krishna Byre Gowda, is irrelevant if the Chief Minister was in charge of the BDA and BMRDA.

“The government's portfolio allocation farce has completely exposed the real priorities of the Congress party,” Ashoka stated on X.

In a rare division of responsibilities over Bengaluru’s development, Gowda has been entrusted with overseeing the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA), the Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) and Namma Metro, while the Shivakumar maintains direct control of the Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA) and the Bengaluru Metropolitan Region Development Authority (BMRDA), two agencies that hat oversee some of the City’s biggest land and infrastructure projects.

What is left for the Bengaluru Development Minister, asked Ashoka, if Shivakumar kept the BDA and BMRDA under his control.

“It seems that the Bangalore Development Minister is irrelevant in this government,” he added.

NO AGRI, EDU MINISTER YET?  

Ashoka also said that the Shivakumar-led government had, in its thirst for power, already shown anti-farmer sentiments by not naming an Agricultural Minister yet.

“The Agriculture Department, which should take care of the availability of seeds, supply of fertilisers, crop loans, crop insurance, and monitoring the rainfall situation, is now orphaned without a minister,” he wrote, noting the onset of the sowing season.

The Padmanabhanagar MLA also noted that the new academic year is beginning, but there

On the other hand, the new academic year has begun, bringing challenges of distributing textbooks and uniforms to a lakh of students and fixing the crumbling infrastructure, but there is no full-time education Minister either.

“There is fierce competition among Congress leaders like vultures only for accounts that will facilitate the business of contracts and commissions worth thousands of crores of rupees,” Ashoka alleged.