H D Kumaraswamy

BENGALURU: Chief minister HD Kumaraswamy will launch his grama vastavya — village stay — programme from the backward Hyderabad-Karnataka region on June 21, but the opposition BJP has criticized the move, saying it is a gimmick aimed at diverting focus from the failures of the coalition government.

According to the itinerary released by the chief minister’s office (CMO) on Monday, Kumaraswamy will spend a day in a village in Gurumitkal taluk, Yadgir district on June

21. The next day, he will move to Afzalpur taluk in Kalaburagi district. On July 5 and 6, he will stay in villages in Basavakalyan and Sindhanur taluks in Bidar and Raichur districts respectively.

The villages where the CM will stay are yet to be finalized and it will be done in consultation with the district administration and local people’s representatives, a source in the CMO said.

The object of the programme is to prove Kumaraswamy still cares for the poor, but his continued stay at a star hotel while in Bengaluru is proving to be an antithesis. After the severe drubbing in the Lok Sabha polls, reports suggested the CM would move out of the hotel. But he continues to retain the room.

“He doesn’t stay at the hotel all the time,” says Satish, who is on the CM’s personal staff. “He has taken a room only to rest between gaps in his busy schedule owing to his poor health. At night he sleeps at his JP Nagar residence. Some people are making an issue out of it unnecessarily.”

Unlike the village stays during his first stint as CM when he mostly met residents of the village, this time Kumaraswamy will meet people from nearby villages too and will address their grievances. “It will be more like a Janata Darshan,” said staff at the CMO. “People of the taluk will be asked to come to the village to meet the CM and get their grievances addressed.”

As per a tentative plan decided at a meeting between Kumaraswamy and senior officials on Monday, the CM will reach the village at 11am and interact with the people till the evening. Later he will stay at a government school in the village and interact with students. Students will also host cultural programmes.

“The CM is staying in schools with the intention of improving infrastructure at government schools and to popularise them among parents,” said HB Dinesh, the CM’s media secretary.

It’s a gimmick: DVS

Union minister DV Sadananda Gowda criticised Kumaraswamy’s village stay programme , calling it a ploy to shift focus from coalition woes.

“Earlier he had stayed in many villages with a promise to develop them,” Sadananda said. “But his government did not take care of any of them. Now he is again going to villages. This time, it is to shift focus from bickering within the Congress and the JD(S).”

CM seeks Bharat Ratna for seer

Chief minister HD Kumaraswamy on Monday wrote yet another letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking the Bharat Ratna for the late Siddaganga seer Shivakumara Swami. Making a case for the Lingayat seer, Kumaraswamy said the “walking god” deserves the recognition for his service to the people. The Karnataka government has been seeking the Ratna for the seer for over last two years in recognition of the same.

