Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who had inducted as many as 29 ministers to his Cabinet recently, appointed ministers for various districts on Monday. Most of them represent their home districts.
Siddaramaiah appointed his close aide PWD Minister Dr H C Mahadevappa for two districts -Hassan and Kodagu. But unlike his predecessors, the CM did not appoint himself as minister of any district.
Health Minister U T Khader was assigned charge of Kolar, the most parched district. Khader hails from Dakshina Kannada district where several environmental organisations are opposing the implementation of the controversial Yettinahole river diversion project.
He may have to defend the state government stand regarding Yettinahole project and strive to fulfil the aspirations of the people of Kolar and other parched districts.
The estimated cost of implementing the Yettinahole project is `8,329 crore to get 24.01 tmcft water and to cater to the needs of Tumkur, Chikkaballapur and Kolar districts.
The district ministers are: Ramalingareddy (Bangalore Urban), K G George (Bangalore Rural), H Anjaneya (Chitradurga), Dinesh Gundurao (Chikkaballapur), Shamanur Shivashankarappa (Davanagere), U T Khader (Kolar), Krishna Byregowda (Ramanagaram), T B Jayachandra (Tumkur), Kimmane Rathnakar (Shimoga), Satish Jarkiholi (Belgaum), S R Patil (Bhagalkot), H K Patil (Gadag), M B Patil (Bijapur), Santhosh Lad (Dharwad), Prakash B Hukkeri (Haveri), R V Deshapande (Uttara Kannada), Qamar Ul Islam (Gulbarga), Dr Sharana Prakash R Patil (Bidar), P T Parameshwar Naik (Bellary), Umashree (Raichur), Shivaraj Tangadagi (Koppal), Babu Rao Chinchansur (Yadgir), V Srinivas Prasad (Mysore), H S Mahadeva Prasad (Chamarajanagar), Abhaya Chandra Jain (Chikmagalur), B Ramanatha Rai (Dakshina Kannada), Ambareesh (Mandya) and Vinay Kumar Sorake (Udupi). The district ministers are authorised to chair Karnnataka Development Programme once in three months at district-level as well as hoist national flag on Independence Day and Republic Day.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Karnataka / by Express News Service – Bangalore / May 28th, 2013
