Row erupts over Nirmala’s Kodagu visit’s itinerary
Madikeri ( Karnataka), Aug. 24: Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Karnataka minister Sa Ra Mahesh were on Friday locked in an exchange of words over her itinerary during a visit to the floodhit Kodagu district.
The entire episode took place in the presence of officials and the media at the district commissioner’s office here.
Ms Sitharaman was interacting with a group of affected people here when Mashesh, the district incharge minister, told her that officials were waiting for her for a review meeting and they had to go for rehabilitation work.
He said she could first address the officials to which Ms Sitharaman agreed. However, she noted that she was only going by the minute- byminute programme drawn up for her visit and she had been following the minister in- charge and the itinerary.
“I follow the minister in charge. Central minister follows the minister in charge here. Unbelievable! You have a list of minutetominute for me to follow... I am doing as per your schedule,” she said.
Ms Sitharaman, Rajya Sabha member from Karnataka, then sought to know how many of the officials were from the field taking care of the rehabilitation work and said she did not want the work to be upset.
Later, Mr Mahesh dubbed Sitharaman’s comments as a reaction to the demand for funds from the Centre to Kodagu.