From Our Special Correspondent

Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, Feb 20: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has accused the opposition BJP of spreading lies and poison while the ruling Congress party is wedded to development and welfare of the people.

Replying to the debate on the motion of thanks on the Governor’s address to the legislature in the assembly on Tuesday, he said the BJP rule in the State between 2019 and 2023 was 'anti-people' and was disliked by the people.

The chief minister said the milk production under Congress rule was more than during the BJP rule. While government had released Rs 1,178 crore as subsidy to milk farmers from 2019 till assembly polls, the Congress government has already release Rs 971 crore out of the Rs 1,172 crore and the subsidy amount was increased from Rs 3 to Rs 5 per litre.

Describing the Congress rule as ‘’good economics’’ with stress on implementation of the five pre-poll guarantees to help the people, Siddaramaiah pointed out that the government has set apart Rs 52,009 crore allocation for the guarantees during the coming year.

The chief minister recalled Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s argument of sharing 50% of the Central pool of taxes when he was chief minister of Gujarat and said he had forgotten his own demands and Karnataka is now getting barely Rs 12 to 13 for every Rs 100 of the taxes collected from the State.

Siddarmaiah reminded the BJP leaders that the 15th Finance Commission had allocated Rs 11,495 crore to the State which is yet to be released. In the 2023-24 budget, the Centre has committed Rs 5,300 crore to the Upper Bhadra Project and this had been proclaimed even in Basavaraj Bommai’s State budget for the year.

"Where is that money? Bommai should get it from the Centre,’’ he challenged. He lashed out at BJP leaders for changing their tactics now and arguing that the Congress government has not properly submitted demands. They want to fool the people, he said and attacked the BJP for not fighting with the Centre when the rightful share of revenue was denied.

The Modi government and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman are touting the ridiculous argument that the Rs 5,495 crore allocated to Karnataka when BJP was in power in the State in the interim report of the 15th Finance Commission is not released because it has not been mentioned in the final report. "Is this the way the government functions?" he asked.

Rs 6,000 crore announced by the Centre for peripheral ring road and tank rejuvenation projects is not released, he said attacking the Modi government for increasing prices of petrol, diesel and LPG while bringing down corporate tax from 30% to 22% indicating the Modi government’s preference for crony capitalists and disdain for the poor and common people.

BJP and Modi government are against the poor, farmers and middle classes and Modi’s slogan of 'Sabka saath, sabka vikaas' is only restricted to election speeches, he said lashing out at the Modi government’s failure to release funds for drought relief.