Bengaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who had introduced a slew of ‘bhagya’ programmes over three years of administration, admitted on Saturday that the government had failed in marketing the schemes well. At an interaction with media across the state organised by Karnataka Madhyama Academy here, Siddaramaiah spoke about how his own poverty and experiences shaped the formulation of many of the ‘bhagya’ policies.
“A lot of these programmes were to benefit the voiceless. But, even today, we do not know how it has benefited them. We failed to provide good publicity for these programmes. That is where we fell behind,” he remarked.
“Over the next two years, we will make sure there is adequate publicity for the schemes. That is why I have kept the Information Department portfolio with me,” he said.
The CM, who restricted the questioning to development-related issues, said that his government was open to criticism.
One of the very first questions asked was about Chamarajanagar, where the journalist said that Siddaramaiah’s visits to the district had broken the jinx and got him good publicity, but did nothing for the district. The CM replied that a medical college was in the pipeline for the district and he had allocated `50 crore for the development of the town alone.
Siddu’s interaction with journalists results in chaos
A well-organised interaction programme with the Chief Minister, by the Karnataka Madhayama Academy on Saturday, quickly turned into a nightmare for the organisers as participants clamoured for attention, not heeding to calls of maintaining order.
The event was attended by more than 300 journalists from all regional and English media across the state. Journalists were expected to field questions to the CM, according to when the district names were called, after he finished his statement to the media. Journalists from Bengaluru and Mysuru were asked to refrain from asking questions because of their frequent access to the Chief Minister.
In a dismaying show of lack of decorum, several journalists interrupted the proceedings repeatedly and loudly objected to other journalists asking questions, hurled abuses towards the organisers and other journalists, leading to chaos and confusion.
To make matters worse, some journalists rather than ask questions related to development, chose to launch into an adulatory narrative on government schemes and the Chief Minister or tried to bring issues concerning journalists welfare at the gathering.
Ironically, there was no dearth of time as the Chief Minister spent a long time at the interaction and tried patiently to answer each and every question.
Journalists who would not wait for their turn, not only tried to field questions to repeatedly cut off the Chief Minister when he was replying to questions. While the organisers were shouted down when they tried to request journalists to follow the order being called, even the request of the Chief Minister himself to keep calm went unheeded.