K’taka govt hiding death of Golden Howdah elephant ‘Arjuna’, alleges ex-CM Bommai
Bengaluru: Former Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Thursday accused the state government of trying to hide the real reason behind the death of the Dasara jumbo ‘Arjuna’, who died under mysterious circumstances recently.
Talking to media persons in Bengaluru, Bommai said that the final rites of the wild tusker had been conducted in a hurry.
“There seems to be anarchy in the Forest department and a big herd of IFS officers were settled in Bengaluru.”
“I attempted to send them to forests but now they have returned to Bengaluru. The IFS officials were involved in corruption and they must be sent back to forests forthwith.”
Arjuna died after being fatally injured by a wild elephant in Sakaleshpur of Hassan district.
Arjuna was brought to Hassan for an operation to capture the disruptive wild elephant in Yeslur. During the operation, sharpshooters fired a tranquillizing dart at the wild elephant, which then attacked Arjuna from the front, resulting in his death.
Arjuna carried the Golden Howdah of Goddess Chamundeshwari during the historical Mysuru Dasara celebrations.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had announced a memorial for the 63-year-old elephant ‘Arjuna’, which died during an operation in a forest to capture a wild tusker on December 1.
Siddaramaiah also announced that the memorial will be built by the state government and will be set up at the site in the forest as well as at the H.D. Kote town in Mysuru district.
Slamming the Congress government, Bommai alleged the farmers were in distress due to drought but the relief had not been released yet.
“The farmers don’t have the crops or drinking water, no fodder for the cattle. The state hasn’t released a single paise and pointed its fingers towards the Union government,” the former Chief Minister said.
“The previous BJP government had disbursed Rs 2,000 crore to farmers through the Direct Benefit Transfer during the floods. The incumbent (Congress) government had promised to give Rs 2,000 to each farmer which was nothing but an insult to the farmers. As per the Central government’s guidelines, the state must announce a compensation of Rs 6,000 per hectare for dry farming and Rs 18,000 for irrigated land,” Bommai added.
“The Kisan Samman programme launched by the BJP government had been stopped. In view of the prevailing situation, the government must not insist on the recovery of the farm loan and announce a fresh loan. There had been a delay in the distribution of the solarium to the families of farmers who committed suicide and this had angered them.”
Asked about former Minister V. Somanna’s actions, the BJP leader said: “Somanna was a senior leader and the Congress high command was aware of everything. After the election, Somanna would go to Delhi and hold talks with the national leaders. The high command would also talk to the Vijayapura MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal,” he said.
Bommai described former Minister Gulihatti Shekhar’s statement as wrong, adding that several Dalit leaders have occupied the top posts in the RSS.
Asked about the non-participation of Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar in the ongoing Belagavi session, the former Chief Minister said: “He (Shivakumar) was busy in the Telangana politics and he must tell what’s important, the people’s problems or politics.”