CM says Karnataka remained backward for five years under Congress rule

BENGALURU: Ahead of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Rath Yatra on March 1, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai attended a workshop for the party’s Vidhansabha Kshethra Prabharis in Bengaluru on Wednesday evening.

Speaking at the event, the CM said, “Taluk-level conferences must be organised on behalf of the morchas of SC, ST, OBCs, women, youth, and farmers. Besides, the convention of beneficiaries of various schemes must be held at the Assembly level to create awareness of the state government schemes. Leaders who will play important role in the Karnataka election in the next three and a half months have assembled here”.

“There is a responsibility on them to work out the strategy to win every Assembly constituency. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a number of programmes in the last eight years. In 2019, after B S Yediyurappa became the CM, he also has given several programmes and effectively faced the onslaught of the Covid pandemic. After I became the CM, the floods had been effectively managed and a number of programmes launched. But these must reach the people”, the CM said.

Ministers J C Madhuswamy and Kota Srinivas Poojary at the meeting venue.

The CM said other parties are trying to get votes through a negative approach and are wasting time. But the incumbent government is doing pro-people work to improve their living standards. The progress report must be placed before the electorate to seek their support and this is the opinion of the BJP. Some parties, when it comes to power, indulge in selfishness, nepotism, corruption, insulting others, and try to seek votes on those negative points.
Bommai further said that the Congress party ruled for five years, but the state remained backward on all fronts.

“They misled the people by giving their names to the schemes provided by the Union government. The previous government took Rs 30 from the Government of India for the ‘Anna Bhagya’ scheme and gave Rs 3 from the state treasury and coined it as their scheme. Even before the Congress government came to power, Rs 30 per kg rice had been distributed by the BJP government under PDS at Rs 3 per kg. If any government with a record of corruption in Karnataka is there, then it is the Congress Government”, the CM said.

“The corruption was witnessed in the purchase of rice, pillows and mattresses, corruption in BDA, Minor Irrigation, Major Irrigation, Solar, and others. To cover up their omissions and commissions, they shut down the Lokayukta and started Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) only to close all the corruption cases. The BJP government has re-opened the Lokayukta as per the court’s directions. The Congress leaders must explain their involvement in corruption”, the CM Bommai added.

Former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar and former minister K S Eshwarappa arriving for the meeting.

Bommai said that cases have been filed along with evidence, but the party will not talk about it. “If probed, the dirt of the Congress government will come out. These people are now demanding an inquiry by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court and this will be taken before the people. Inquiry is guaranteed if they file the case with all the specifications. Without doing it, firing in the air will not be helpful”, he said.

The CM said his predecessor B S Yediyurappa had given free Rs 4,000 to each farmer under the ‘Kisan Sanman’ scheme. The present government has launched the ‘Raitha Vidya Nidhi scheme’ which has benefitted 11 lakh children. Reservation for the SCs and STs has been hiked. Karnataka is the second state in GST collection. The achievements of the present BJP government will be given in writing and this campaign must be carried forward by them. The prabharis are the charioteers of the Rath Yatra, he said.

State BJP President Nalin Kumar Kateel, former CM B S Yediyurappa BJP national president and in-charge of Karnataka, Arun Singh, and others were present at the event. (ANI)