Karnataka minister S. Suresh Kumar on Sunday stuck to his decision to quit in the wake of allegations that he suppressed facts for obtaining a residential site, even as top BJP leaders mounted pressure on him to withdraw his resignation.
“There is no question of taking back my decision to quit as Karnataka law and parliamentary affairs minister,” Mr Kumar, who resigned on Saturday, told reporters here.
Many state and Central leaders contacted him and asked him to withdraw his resignation, he said, adding that, “I am grateful to those who supported me following my resignation.”
Mr Kumar had submitted his resignation to chief minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda after a section of the media on Saturday carried a story quoted to an RTI applicant, who alleged that Mr Kumar suppressed the fact that his kin already owned two sites while obtaining the ‘G’ category (discretionary quota of chief minister) site here.
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India plans to export excess wheat stock
New Delhi, June 24: India is planning to export two million tonnes of wheat from government stock involving a subsidy of `1,000 crores and a decision in this regard is expected soon.
The proposal is to be taken up by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) shortly as part of government’s moves to offload food grains in view of storage crunch in the country, sources told PTI here.
At present, the government has food grains stock of 82 million tonnes as of June one against the storage capacity of only 63 million tonnes. Sources said the export of two million tonnes of wheat would entail a subsidy of around `1,000 crores as the cost of the food grain in international market is lesser than in India.
In an effort to test the interest of global buyers in Indian wheat stock, state-owned trading firm STC, under the commerce ministry, had recently floated a tender and about six-seven bids have been received.
The export proposal is based on the recommendation made by the Prime Minister’s Economic Advi-sory Council chairman C. Rangarajan. The government is in the process of shedding some excess food grains rather than allow these to decay for lack of proper storage. — PTI