From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
Bengaluru, Mar 4: In a direct challenge to the opposition BJP-JDS combine, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday offered to retire from politics if anybody proves that he had taken even 5 paisa from any contractor as commission.
Addressing the State Contractors Association convention at the Bengaluru Palace Grounds, he said declared that he will retire from politics if anybody proves that he had taken even 5 paisa as commission from any contractor for sanctioning Letter of Credit (LOC) be it during the earlier tenure of 2013-18 or as Chief Minister since May last year.
“The Congress government is not like the previous 40% Commission government of BJP,’’ he said and promised to release Rs 4,000 crore for clearing the pending bills of contractors by the Public Works Department at the rate of Rs 25 crore for each assembly constituency.
The Chief Minister assured the contractors that their pending bills will be fully cleared in phases.
He announced that the Congress government will ensure that the package system of executing works will be abolished and all the pending bills will be cleared in a phased programme.
He reiterated that the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and former BJP chief minister had talked about the Centre’s promise to release Rs 5,300 crore for the Upper Krishna Project in their respective budgets. “Not a single rupee has come till date,’’ he said.
The Chief Minister said the government will clear all the pending bills of the contractors despite the n on-cooperation and failure to release funds by the Narendra Modi regime.
Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, ministers Satish Jarakiholi, N S Boseraju, Z A Zameer Ahmed and State Contractors Association Presidnet Kempanna were present.
Video Conference on Drought Situation on Tuesday
The Chief Minister indicated that the State Government will conduct a video conference with all district in charge ministers and senior officials including district Deputy Commissioners from his Home Office of Krishna at 11 am on Tuesday.
The meeting will review the situation and take stock of the problems pertaining to drinking water, availability of fodder, drought relief, jobs for agricultural labourers and other issues.