Bangalore: Minister Ansari breaks jinx at Vikasa Soudha

[ 5 Sep, 2006 0247hrs IST TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

BANGALORE: Two years and seven months after it was inaugurated in February 2004, the 'jinx' of Vikasa Soudha has been broken.

Labour minister Iqbal Ansari moved from Vidhana Soudha into his allotted third-floor room in Vikasa Soudha on Monday, the first minister to do so.

Ministers are citing various reasons from vaastu incompatibility to "lack of convenience" to move to the new rooms allotted to them.

According to officials, Vikasa Soudha has been designed similar to the Union secretariat in New Delhi where ministers sit surrounded by their officials.

But though most of the 19 departments to be housed in Vikasa Soudha have moved in, none of the ministers have followed suit. Ansari has chosen to break this and join his department in Vikasa Soudha.

"I do not believe in superstition or vaastu, so I have moved into my rooms," he told reporters here. Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy was present on the occasion, but made no remark on whether he would also move into the chamber meant for the CM at Vikasa Soudha.

Medical education minister V S Acharya is all set to become the second minister to move into Vikasa Soudha.

"I have already communicated to the department of personnel and administrative affairs that I will move in during Navratri. It is pithru paksha now, not the correct time to shift. After the Mahalaya Ammavase on September 15, it is auspicious," he told The Times of India.

But his colleague water resources minister K S Eshwarappa is among those who do not want to shift.

"My officials have moved to Vikasa Soudha. But the room allotted to me in Vidhana Soudha third floor is convenient; it also faces the right direction. I do not want to move," he stated.

The minister, who is miffed, however, is primary and secondary education minister Basavaraj S Horatti.

"Earlier, as RDPR minister, I wrote to DPAR asking them to allocate rooms to me and my department in Vikasa Soudha. They didn't. Even in my present department, I am willing to go, if allotted a room."