A kindergarten essay from Karnataka MLAs back from foreign junket

mangaloretoday.com / India today

Bangalore, Feb 27: Cherry juice making... sheep, cows grazing...train, helicopter ride: Funny details of study report by last batch of Karnataka MLAs on foreign tour

"We saw the making of cherry juice and dry fruits marketing. We even saw the way they packed fruits. We went on a helicopter that landed on a 3900 ft glacier. The experience was tremendous. We went on a train. We saw sheep and cows grazing in open lands. This is something our government must focus upon. We visited a reservoir and were happy."

 

BR Yavagal, chairman of the legislature committee on Backward Classes and Minorities Welfare Committee

Remembering those essays you wrote about your picnics in your early school days and wondering how much better you were. You probably were.

The above-mentioned nursery-rhyming sentences are not from Jack & Jill Went Up The Hill-type exercise books.

These are the highlights of the report prepared by the last batch Karnataka MLAs who recently toured Australia, New Zealand and Fiji islands amid furore over their mindless prodigality in the state Assembly and elsewhere.

The Congress government in Karnataka has drawn a lot of flak for its MLAs going on global study tours ignoring burning local issues, including a fierce drought the state faced last year.

BR Yavagal, chairman of the legislature committee on Backward Classes and Minorities Welfare Committee who led the study tour, had defended the trip, claiming it was definitely not a "jolly trip" to a foreign destination at the cost of public money.

Now if you believe, the MLAs have left out significant observations about how the good works on foreign lands can be replicated here, you are wrong. Here are some other highlights of the report:

"In New Zealand, we visited the rain forest and studied the serious negative impact of cutting trees. We went on the rope-way over the hills. We need to introduce this in hilly regions in Karnataka. Caste system is absent there. People are more disciplined. We need to introduce helicopter rides for tourists in places like Hampi, etc, in Karnataka. Scientific methods are used in agriculture here. More pay-and-use toilets are present there."

When we confronted Nargund MLA BR Yavagal with this report and told him it read more like a kindergartner essay, he said, "It may be your opinion. We are simple people. We can’t write in an articulate manner."

Here are some of the questions we asked him and how Yavagal replied:

Q. How are experiences in helicopter rides and train travel part of a study tour?

A. We can’t always be studying. There will be some sightseeing too.

Q. What do you think are the highlights of the study tour?

A. Thrust areas are sheep and cow grazing.... Infrastructure and scientific techniques in agriculture etc. We have given 15 suggestions. 3 or 4 can be implemented.

Q. experiences that you have mentioned in the report doesn’t seem like a study meant for the backward or minority committee?

A. But this has broadened our outlook. How can we then think and come up with new ideas or plan?

When we asked Karnataka Chief Minister Siddharamaiah, he said, "I have not seen the report. I will look into this matter."

It may be noteworthy here that Karnataka MLAs have been going on foreign junkets on the taxpayer’s money for the last five years. Under fire CM Siddaramaiah has now put a full stop to more tours until better guidelines can be framed.

A couple of months ago, an expose by a news channel had revealed that the MLAs returning from junkets to fancy destinations had been copying and pasting text from the internet in their so-called reports from study tours. The tour in question had covered Japan, China, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.

Karnataka Legislative Assembly Speaker, too, had admitted that the report had nothing about public enterprises in these countries.