Karwar: Uttara Kannada Member of Paliament and Union Minister of state for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Ananthkumar Hegde became angry om officials and called them inept, stating that they had appeared in the meeting 'unprepared'. It may be noted that Member of Parliament himself was attending the review meet after one year.

Blistering on the officials, Hegde demanded from them why were they so casual towards work. He ordered them to do their homework before attending meetings.

Acoording to sources, Hegde was chairing a meeting at Karwar ZP auditorium to review the progress made by various departments in the implementation of government schemes in his Lok Sabha constituency. Explaining the status, when assistant executive engineers G S Patil and R V Chitawadi said that out of the 37 projects related to roads and building construction, 34 were being implemented in Khanapur and Kittur divisions in Belagavi district, Hegde suddenly lost became angry and blamed them for "parroting the same answer since last four years." He also forbid the officials from leaving the venue till executive engineer comes to the meeting. He also berated HESCOM officials over the slow implememtation of electrifying villages. "You should feel ashamed that at a time when the Centre is trying to electrify entire India and your counterparts in Bihar and Chhattisgarh are able to draw power lines in Naxal affected areas, you are not able to draw power lines to villages in Uttra Kannada district.” he said.

Deputy Commissioner S S Nakul, Additional Deputy Commissioner Dr Suresh Itnal and other department officials were present in the meeting.

The BJP MP has been berated by locals for his 'vanishing act' as soon as elections are over. Locals allege that Hegde becomes visibles only when the elections are near. "Leaders should be consistent in their work. All this photo op yelling at officials is just a one-time thing. It won't do us any good." Some of the locals said.