Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa today exhorted officials to ensure adequate supply of fertiliser, sowing seeds and pesticides for farmers as agricultural operations for the Kharif season have begun in the state. “Ensure that last year’s scenes of shortages for vital farm inputs do not recur,” he told a meeting of regional commissioners, deputy commissioners of districts and CEOs of zilla panchayats at an interative session with them here today, the first after the recent Lok sabha polls.
On June 10 last, police had opened fire in Haveri to quell an agitation over fertilizer shortage, killing two persons and injuring four others.
The meeting today forms part of a series of measures by the chief minister to gear up the administrative machinery.
Yeddyurappa complimented officials for implementing various government schemes, but cautioned them against complacency. “A lot more needs to be done. Those who perform will certainly get government support. If not the government will act”. He claimed that several social security schemes had been successfully implemented by the BJP government in the one year since coming to power and said the aim was to turn Karnataka into a leading state in all spheres in industrial, social and educational sectors. Revenue minister G Karunakara Reddy was conspicuous by his absence, while energy minister K S Eshwarappa,who has strained relations with the chief minister, stayed at the meeting for just ten minutes after arriving with state planning board chairman D H Shankara Murthy.
