Protest against Centre is political stunt to cover up K’taka government’s mistakes: Former CM Bommai

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], February 5 (ANI): To cover up its mistakes, the Karnataka government is holding a protest in New Delhi against the Central Government which was nothing but a political stunt, former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said on Monday.
Addressing a news conference here on Monday, former CM Bommai said Chief Minister Siddaramaiah accused the central government of everything to cover his mistakes.
Bommai said, "The anti-farmer government was ruling the state and not a single paise had been released for development works. The CM has said that the state had received less grants in the 15th Finance Commission than in the previous 14th Finance Commission. The Siddaramaiah-led government was in power when the 15th Commission Committee visited Karnataka but the committee was not apprised about the real financial condition of the state."
He said that the percentage of grants decreased from 4.7 per cent to 3.6 per cent for which Siddaramaiah was squarely responsible."
The BJP leader said during the UPA regime, the state had received Rs 81,795 crore through various taxes and in the NDA regime, Karnataka got Rs 2,82,791 crore.
"It has got a tenure of another two years and by 2026, the state would receive Rs 2.5 lakh crore. This would be Rs 1,51,309 crore more than the 14th Finance Commission of the UPA regime. Apart from this, only 6000 km highway had been developed since independence out of various funds from the centre and post-2014, 13500 km highway had been developed during the incumbent Modi Government," he added.
He further said that the Kisan Samman program has benefitted over 60 lakh farmers.
"Under the UPA Government, the state received Rs 885 crore for various railway projects and Rs 11000 crore had been received in the present Modi Government. In the 2023-24 budget, the state received Rs 7524 crore for railway projects. From 1947 to 2014, only 16 km of railway electrification had been done in the State but during the NDA Government regime, 3266 km electrification had happened. During the Corona pandemic, 10 crore vaccines were given to the state free of cost and five kg of rice was distributed among the poor. All these had been hushed up by the CM Siddaramaiah," he added.
Giving a fitting reply regarding the central government cess as alleged by Siddaramaiah, he said the cess was not started by the NDA Government but had been there since independence. Why it was not removed by the UPA Government? The Modi Government has earmarked Rs 5300 crore for the Upper Bhadra project and the state government must spend 50 per cent to get that money from the Centre. A proper proposal must be submitted to the central government. Writing letters would not solve the problems.
He said the Congress government in the State ia holding a protest in Delhi to protest against the union government only to cover up its mistakes.
He said that on February 7, the state BJP leaders will be holding a stir in Bengaluru against the failures of the State Government on all fronts.
"Under the garb of guarantees, development was not happening and even funds had not been released to the MLAs. Once the dates for the parliamentary polls are announced, no grants will be released. The state was under a severe drought and the government hasn't released funds yet. This government is as good as dead for the farmers. The Congress leaders think they can win the coming LS polls by doing such political stunts," he further said.
Asked about the efforts made by the State BJP MPs to get the drought relief funds released from the Centre, Bommai said the MPs have spoken with the government and the amount would be released at the earliest.
"He said the state government has claimed that the guarantee schemes had been successfully implemented and in that case, it must publish a white paper saying how many people had benefitted from it. Siddaramaiah has borrowed more loans and additional loans will be taken in the next budget. The loans taken by the Siddaramaiah government between 2013 and 2018 were cleared by the successive BJP government," Bommai said.
He said that a decrease in tax was reported due to illegal mining. Bommai said that illegal mining had been reported more during the Congress regime. The BJP government brought Rs 25000 crore for the development of mining-affected districts and the government must formulate rules to spend that money.
On the confusion over the Haveri Lok Sabha ticket, Bommai said he spoke to K S Eshwarappa and he said that he hasn't met either Yediyurappa or Jagadish Shettar. "Anyone is free to discuss with Yediyurappa about the tickets to contest in the coming parliamentary polls," he added. (ANI)