A Conversation With: Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda D.V. Sadananda Gowda became the chief minister of Karnataka state, of which Bangalore is the capital, last summer amid a $3.5 billion scandal involving the illegal mining of iron ore. He recently visited Mumbai to meet investors and corporate executives. Lightly edited and condensed excerpts of an interview follow. You have been in power for seven months now. What is your vision for the state and what have been some of the big issues you are working on? I wanted to bring transparency in the administration, a corruption-free government and there should be clarity in administration, particularly I want that [government] officers should be friendly with the people, and their work should be done within stipulated time period. What are your plans to help the development of the technology industry in Bangalore and what are you doing to attract other industries? Already, major companies like Infosys, Wipro and Accenture are well established there. They need some better facilities and they need some incentives from the government. We are providing them all sorts of incentives. Infrastructure development is one of the challenges there in Bangalore and there also we are doing [work]. Already, we have commissioned the first phase of the metro and the second phase is also cleared by the government. How do you improve the speed of delivery? It took a long time to finish the first phase of the metro. The problems were with regards to land acquisition and getting clearance from the center. Practically, we took much initiative in clearing the land acquisitions and we had good relations with the center, so we were able to speed up. Mining is an important industry in your state but it has been moribund since last year. What are you doing to clean up and restart mining? The matter is pending before the Supreme Court. The Central Empowered Committee has already submitted its report before the Supreme Court. Because of the mining issue, our government has suffered a setback. We are not getting iron ore for several industries and employment generation could not be done. Nearly 150,000 employees are on the street and there is a loss to the government exchequer. The matter will come up on the 16th of this month before the Supreme Court. We have filed our affidavits of what all things we need. Your state's lokayukta or ombudsman pointed out many failings in the oversight of the mining industry. Couldn't the problems have been avoided had the state regulated and overseen the industry better in the first place? All these problems arise because of the lokayukta report. That lokayukta report has mentioned something which is adverse to the interest of the state. So, because of that all these things have happened. As the matter is before the Supreme Court I don't want to comment about a few things. Are you saying that the lokayukta report was unfair to the state of Karnataka? We have referred back the lokayukta report to the lokayukta seeking certain clarifications. Because lokayukta is not there at present - the earlier lokayukta has resigned - the matter is pending before the lokayukta. When will the government appoint a new lokayukta? The process has already started. I have written the letters as per the lokayukta act and I have yet to receive the names that have to be suggested by the speaker, chairman, chief justice and opposition leaders. Then only I can go ahead. When you took office as chief minister, after the resignation of B. S. Yeddyurappa, people said you would be a caretaker chief minister. Will you step down? Have you received any orders from your party? No sir. I am an obedient soldier of the party. So, whatever decision will be taken by my central party leaders I will obey it. The recent assembly elections in five states did not go so well for your party, the Bharatiya Janata Party. What do you think your party's chances are in Karnataka, which will elect a new legislature early next year? Since the last two and a half years, we have faced about 17 by-elections out of which we secured 12 seats. After Mr. Yeddyurrapa became chief minister, Lok Sabha [lower house of Parliament] elections were held, out of 28 we got 19 seats and almost all the municipal legislative council elections, the B.J.P. won. At no point of that time was there a setback to the B.J.P. You are confident that trend will continue? Yes, it will continue because since the last two and a half years my predecessor, Mr. Yeddyurrapa, has given very good plans and progress to the people and it has been accepted by the people of Karnataka and they feel that the B.J.P. government has done something good. Bangalore has been one of India's most cosmopolitan cities. But many residents feel that your government has tried to change that, in part by forcing bars and restaurants to shut down early. How do you respond? We have seen that there were a series of accidents during night time after the drivers are drunk and drive. And there were a series of complaints from the public, as well, about running of the bars late at night. So, we thought that it is fair on our part to shut the bars at 11:30.