Siddaramaiah in the eye of storm
The ruling Congress Government in Karnataka led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is bogged down with one or the other controversies. This time the Chief Minister, who took personal interest in the appointment of J Rana George, son of Home Minister KJ George as member of wildlife Board, has snowballed into a major controversy.
Rana George was in the limelight last year after he had a major fight with the forest officials when he was denied entry into the Bandipur wildlife sanctuary in his private vehicle. later, after a probe he was given clean chit on KJ George’s behalf.
A source in the forest department told The Pioneer that Rana has his land adjacent to Bandipur Wildlife Sanctuary and with his coveted position will get free accesses to all wildlife sanctuaries and national parks in the State. Sources confirmed Rana wanted to set up a luxury wildlife resort both in the Cauvery Valley in Kodagu and near Bandipur. According to a forest source, his position would help him to gain access to core forest area and to critical and sensitive forest patch to which entry is banned by the SC.
Siddaramaiah who is also ex-officio chairman of the board has justified his appointment and said Rana George was made a member as he had the experience as an honorary wildlife warden for four years. “Rana was made member of the Wildlife Board purely on merit, considering his past experience as honorary warden and his special love for wildlife. It’s not because of his political background, but his passion,” he said.
“There is nothing political in appointing Rana George to the Wildlife Board. In fact, Rana has been an environment lover for several years. He has been an environmentalist and has contributed immensely to the field in the last three years,” he added.
According to sources, Rana bought 14-acre land near Bandipur sanctuary about five years ago. Forest department sources alleged that Rana wanted to push his grand plan of starting a commercial venture. However, Rana denied all these allegations as baseless and said he was an honorary wildlife warden for four years and got all the qualifications to join the board as a member.
He said, “I’ve worked as honorary warden for four years and have in-depth knowledge about forests and wildlife. I have a great deal of knowledge about wildlife and have been involved in various activities since my college days.” He also denied he had any plans to build a resort in his land.
According to Indian Forest Conservation Act, only wildlife researchers, scientists, and experts in the subject can be made members of the State Wildlife Board. A senior Congress leader on the condition of anonymity said there were vacancies in the wildlife board to appoint MlAs and MlCs. The CM did not bother to appoint any MlA but was interested in Rana alone.” In the previous wildlife Board ace cricketer Anil Kumble was the vice chairman and his term got over recently.
In another development, senior Congress leader and Speaker of the Karnataka legislative Assembly Kagodu Thimmappa blasted the Siddaramaiah Government and said, “it lacks transparency and effective governance.” He rapped the Government and said, “The administration has not been effective and the Government has not risen up to people’s expectations. It lacks dynamism. There is no transparency in administration.”