Medium and large industries minister Murugesh R Nirani, the guest of honour at Cliktronica, the three-day exhibition to promote small scale and electronics industries, made a hasty exit during the inauguration ceremony on Thursday. Although a three-day mourning has been declared following the death of VS Acharya on Tuesday, it was apparent that the organisers had ruffled Nirani’s feathers.
Making a blink and miss appearance, the minister left the venue soon after welcoming Union minister for MSME, Virbhadra Singh, and presenting him a memorandum. The gathering observed a moment of silence for Acharya, after which Nirani left.
It is believed that he was miffed with the organisers for arranging a fashion show in the name of corporate social responsibility, as part of the inaugural programme, at a time when the state was mourning the loss of a senior minister.
Onlookers heard him express his displeasure to Uma Reddy, president, CLIK, although officials deny the same.
The three-day exhibition was inaugurated by Virbhadra Singh at the World Trade Centre in Bangalore.
The exhibition, organised by the Consortium of Electronic Industries in Karnataka (CLIK), will focus on the rolling out of the Preferential Procurement Policy.
As per the policy, central ministries and public sector units are required to purchase a minimum of 20% of their annual purchases from MSMEs.
“This will be a major boost to the sector,” said Uma Reddy, president, CLIK.
Virbhadra Singh said the growth of the electronics and IT industry has put Bangalore on the industrial map of the country.
