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Congress to move no-confidence motion against J H Patel

The Congress Legislature Party meeting today unanimously decided to move a no-confidence motion against the J H Patel government in Karnataka in the assembly session beginning from tomorrow.

Briefing newsmen after the meeting opposition leader, Mallikarjun Kharge said although the party did not have the requisite strength to see that the motion was carried, it would utilise the opportunity to highlight lapses of the Janata Dal government on all fronts. It was also decided to issue a whip to the party members to ensure that they were present at the time of moving the motion, he added.

He said the party would also raise many problems faced by the people such as the inadequate compensation given to tur dal farmers, damage caused due to the recent heavy rain in the state and inadequate irrigation facilities to farmers.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, which had been accused by the dissident Janata Dal legislators of colluding with the Patel government, has also made no bones about its intention of going all out to seek dissolution of the house.

The dissident Dal legislators, who had raised a banner of revolt against Patel and wanted him to seek a confidence vote in the Janata Dal Legislature Party, have made it clear that they would not allow the government to fall if the opposition moved a no confidence motion against it in the legislature.

In New Delhi, senior JD leader and former minister Ram Vilas Paswan today called on Patel in his effort to bring truce between the two warring factions in Karnataka.

Paswan, who spent nearly an hour with Patel and his senior cabinet colleagues M C Nanaiah, K N Nage Gowda, B Somashekhar at Karnataka Bhavan, told newsmen that the effort of the central leadership would be to save the only party government in the country.

Asked if the party leadership would do anything regarding the demand of the dissident legislators for change of leadership in Karnataka, Paswan who is also chairman of the parliamentary board of the party, said the JD was not ''a Delhi-centric'' party like Congress or the BJP. His party unit in Karnataka was autonomous and Patel and other state leaders would sort out the issue, he added.

Answering questions if he thought the party was moving towards solving the problems between Patel and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, the JD leader said he was not sure but the efforts were on to resolve the problems.

Yesterday party secretary general Bapu Kaldate and former minister S Jaipal Reddy had called on Patel.

J H Patel today called on Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Jaswant Singh to apprise him of the calamity caused due to heavy rains and pest attacks in his state which had claimed 310 lives and damaged properties worth Rs 8 billion.

Thanking the Centre for announcing an interim relief of Rs 500 million to tide over the flood havoc, Patel said this money should be released at once.

He said the state government had prepared a detailed memorandum seeking assistance, giving taluk -wise damage caused by the rains and floods. Patel said the state was facing severe financial constraints to mobilise resources to meet the situation.

He said nearly 86 lakh population in 10,000 villages were affected and 4,200 houses had collapsed and 1,25,000 houses had partially collapsed. Six lakh hectare crops had been damaged resulting in a crop loss of Rs 3.17 billion.

UNI

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