Pollution Control Board’s political caste-ing couch

Gowda's men all Vokkaligas are being shown the door. In walk Yeddy's men all Lingayats, supposedly to clean up the act

Pollution Control Board's political caste-ing couch

Gowda's men all Vokkaligasu00a0are being shown the door. In walk Yeddy's men all Lingayats, supposedly to clean up the act

Chief minister B S Yeddyurappa is trying to purge the state pollution control board of Vokkaligas, put there during the reign of the Gowdas.

The latest Lingayat entrant is 70-year-old A S Sadashiviah, who will replace the Vokkaliga Dr H C Sharatchandra as chairman of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB). He was handpicked for the post by the chief minister yesterday.

In and out

"It looks like Yeddyurappa is determined to de-pollute the pollution board by replacing Vokkaligas with Lingayats," said a source in the government, rather sarcastically.

He also vowed to keep the board away from caste politics. "I won't get into government policy when it comes to appointments. But I can assure you that the board will not be affected by all these things."

That may be but that's not how it has been in the past and it's clear that Yeddyurappa is undoing H D Deve Gowda's Vokkaliga handiwork.

Changes, changes

For instance, soon after he came to power last year, Yeddyurappa removed B Venkatesh, a member-secretary, to bring in M S Gowder.

Venkatesh is Deve Gowda's son-in-law while Gowder is Yeddyurappa's relative.

The chief minister then sent Chandrasheker as the Board's finance officer and Balagangadhar as the chief scientific officer. Both are Lingayats. The buzz in the forest ministry, under which the board falls, is that the government is looking for Lingayat candidates to replace the three nominated members who are but, of course Vokkaligas.

Two years ago, when Deve Gowda's son H D Kumaraswamy was chief minister, it was the exact opposite.

Chairman Sharatchandra, member secretary Venkatesh, vigilance committee chairman Narayana Gowda, and other members represented the same politically powerful caste group.

Apart from them, three members were nominated a day after the BJP pulled out of the Kumaraswamyu00a0 government in October 2007.

One of the chosen three was then forest minister Chennigappa's son, another an MLA's brotheru00a0 and the third one of Gowda family's close confidants.

Who's Sadashiviah?
A S Sadashiviah was the principal chief conservator of forests when he retired a few years back.u00a0 He was the chief conservator of forest at Mysore when Veerappan beheaded Srinivas, deputy conservator of forest, in 1990.

u00a0"It was very sad that I had to bring Srinivas's body to Bangalore. It was a really terrible experience," he said.

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