BANGALORE, February 7: Former Union minister and Congress candidate from Bagalkot Lok Sabha seat Siddu Nyamagouda is facing charges of cheating the Government in a Rs 55 lakh barrage (dam) case. He is now out on a bail.The offence was discovered in July last year when Bijapur Jilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer Atul Kumar Tiwari moved the Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) court seeking punishment to `Barrage' Siddu - as he is popularly known - among others, for not utilising Rs 55 lakh for the purpose the funds were sanctioned for by the Centre.Siddu has been the general secretary of Krishna Teer Raith Sangh, a Bijapur-based non-government organisation. He won the 1989 Lok Sabha election on a Congress ticket and became the Union Minister of State for Coal in the P V Narasimha Rao ministry.In March 94, the Union Rural Development Ministry released Rs 55 lakh for Siddu's NGO to enable it to construct a barrage across the river Malaprabha. The sanction of funds was in response to aproposal from the Sangh on building a barrage.While releasing the funds, the Centre asked the Sangh to utilise the entire amount in two years.
