Bowing to pressure from his predecessor B.S. Yeddyurappa and leaders of Opposition parties, Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda on Thursday decided to call off his three-day foreign tour to invite big-ticket companies to invest in Karnataka.
Instead, Mr Gowda will commence a visit of villages in drought affected areas beginning Friday.
Mr Gowda was scheduled to tour Singapore, Japan and other countries from April 15 in order to woo investors for the next edition of Global Investors’ Meet, scheduled to be held in June 2012.
While the Opposition Congress had charged that the Chief Minister was more interested in wooing investments than tackle drought, Mr Yeddyurappa had warned that people would take to the streets if Mr Gowda did not initiate scarcity-relief work on a war footing.
On Thursday, Mr Suresh Kumar, Mr Basavaraj Bommai and Mr Jagadish Shettar, who are heading the ministerial teams for monitoring drought relief work called on Mr Gowda. After receiving preliminary reports from these ministers, which suggested that the drought had worsened since the last week of March, Mr Gowda decided to call off his foreign trip. Industries minister Mr Murugesh Nirani and officials, however, will go ahead with the tour to woo investments.
The Chief Minister has also decided to convene an all party meeting over drought situation on April 19. The meeting will also decide on a date for leading a delegation to meet the PM as well as Union ministers to seek additional assistance for tackling scarcity conditions