About S Siddaramaiah

With a spotless image, Siddaramaiah has earned his way up. If everything had gone the JDS way, he would have been no. 1 in the state and would not have become DyCM the second time. Born in Siddaramanahundi, about 23 kms from Mysore, he hails from a family of four boys and two girls.

Born brilliant, he has the record of not having any primary education but instead started straight away from Standard V. He is said to have had self-education until then by writing the Kannada alphabets on the ground. He has a degree in Law. His wife hails from Chamarajapet and they have two sons, one of them being a doctor. He is one of the rarest politicians, who, in spite of having been in politics for long, does not have an own house in Bangalore. 

As former finance minister in the Janata Dal government, he also has the credit of having presented the state budget for five years in succession.

Hon'ble Dy CM Siddaramaiah with Walter Nandalike - Editor-in-Chief Daijiworld.com

Karnataka's deputy chief minister Siddaramaiah, who also holds a key portfolio of Finance Department in the state cabinet, is on a short visit to the UAE to attend the Kannada Koota event in Abu Dhabi and on some other assignments. He met us for a short while in Dubai.  He was happy to learn about www.daijiworld.com which is reaching to over 30,000 individuals world over, everyday.
 
He spoke to our editor-in-chief Walter Nandalike and discussed various issues regarding Mangalore International Airport, IT development in Karnataka, representation to Christian community in Karnataka cabinet and so on.  The meeting was held at Dubai's Grand Hyatt Hotel on December 19.
 
Rajesh Sequeira who has been instrumental in bringing about awareness of International Airport issue in the UAE and the one who has formed the Karnataka NRI community, was also present to submit a memorandum for speeding up the upgradation process of the proposed Mangalore International Airport.

Here are the excerpts of interview:

Mangalore Airport expansion work has already begun; the union government has already sanctioned Rs 55 crore for this project, but land acquisition has not yet been completed as it is required to be executed with the Karnataka government's green signal and support. Could you please elaborate as to what steps you have taken to complete this project within a short span of time?
 
Answer: Our first priority is BANGALORE International Airport. All the hurdles of the Bangalore International Airport have been cleared and now the cabinet will meet on December 21 to give its final approval. At the same time, Mangalore Airport expansion is also our concern. We cannot treat this as a full-fledged International Airport, but we will fully support the expansion work.
 
B R Shetty, one of leading NRI businesspersons, is trying to achieve this for a very long time. He mentioned to me about the Mangalore Airport during our meeting even yesterday. I have to discuss this issue with PGR Sindhia, the cabinet minister for infrastructure, who is also taking care of this issue. I can assure you that we will promote this project and see that your dream of becoming Mangalore Airport an 'International' one will come true soon.
 
It is great to see that the NRI community in UAE is taking so much of an initiative towa