People had lot of expectations, but Congress failed them: Bommai criticises Congress

BENGALURU: Former Chief Minister Basavaraj on Saturday said the Congress has not able to deliver on its five promises after the first Cabinet meeting.

Addressing a press conference after the Siddaramaiah Cabinet gave in-principle approval to implementing the Congress guarantees, Basavaraj Bommai said, “The Congress government held its first Cabinet meeting today and the people of Karnataka had expectations that it will officially announce the five guarantees today and immediately implement them. But, there is no clarity on the announcement. They have just postponed saying that, it will be implemented after the next cabinet meeting”.

“The Congress government also promised that it will increase revenue up to Rs 50,000 crore and that they would rake in more revenue than last year. Can anybody stop D K Shivakumar in his tracks and question about the five guarantees? They said something during the election and now they are treating people differently. The real face of Congress is being shown. There is already a BPL list, but Congress has not made up its mind”, Bommai hit out at the Congress over its guarantees.

“The state government has all the information ready. Where there is a will, there is a way. The Congress is not showing much interest in implementing its guarantees after the election, he added.

On the Yuva Nidhi scheme of providing Rs 3,000 per month for unemployed graduates for two years, which Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said will start from the upcoming academic year, he pointed out, “This scheme will not be applicable to those who graduated in the previous academic year”.

“All Chief Ministers have borrowed Rs 1 lakh crore from external sources. From 2013 to 2018, Siddaramaiah’s government too borrowed Rs 1 lakh crore loan in five years. I have given details about the total dues on the floor of the Assembly”, he said.

Bommai said development will be hampered due to such free offerings by the government. “But the question is how will they raise funds for the different schemes? The Congress is only lying. I will answer the questions of Siddaramaiah and D K Shivakumar in the Assembly”, he said.

Reacting to the question on whether he is an aspirant for the post of Opposition leader, said, “I am not worried about becoming an opposition leader. We will hold the BJP legislature party meeting as soon as possible and fix the date tomorrow”, he added.