No injustice to N-K, White Paper on fund allocation in next session: Gowda roars

Hubballi: Janata Dal(S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda on Sunday said that the H.D. Kumaraswamy led coalition government will release a White Paper on the total funds allotted to each district of the state by various governments since 1956, during the next Assembly session. 

Addressing mediapersons here on Sunday, he said that no injustice has been caused  to North Karnataka in allocation of funds in the Budget. He also questioned Congress leader H.K. Patil asking him how much funds he had released for the development of his home district, Gadag when he was minister. Patil had publicly criticised the chief minister accusing him of giving step-motherly treatment to North Karnataka. 

“The government has not been discriminatory against North Karnataka. I will ask my son Kumaraswamy to release the details of funds allotted to the region after reorganization of states on linguistic basis. I will advise him to discuss the contribution of all chief ministers to development of the region. I will also ask him to hold a special Assembly session for 2-3 days to hold a discussion on all statistics and data so that people of the region can understand who has done injustice to them,” Gowda said. 

Terming the allegation against the chief minister that he had presented a south Karnataka-centric Budget as baseless, he said that some ‘biased minds’ and a section of the media were spreading negative reports about the Budget. Lashing out at previous Lingayat chief ministers, he questioned their contribution to the region despite having ruled the state for around 25 years. He did not spare even the coalition government’s co-ordination committee president Siddaramaiah. “What has been their contribution to North Karnataka? Crores of rupees has been allotted for the region. If you are saying the region is still neglected and has not witnessed development, then where did the money go? To the house of politicians?”, he wondered.

Stating that it is hard to speak about joining hands with the Third Front to contest the Lok Sabha elections, he said that some political parties have stayed neutral as they have not joined with either the BJP or Congress. Regional parties are strong in many states and they have not clarified their stand on joining the alliance of national parties or forming the Third Front. He also said that a clear picture about the formation of the Third Front will emerge just before the general elections. He said he has no problem in supporting AICC president Rahul Gandhi for the post of prime minister. “I know the strength and weakness of my party. Therefore, I am not in a position to lead the anti-BJP front as of now. We have no problem in supporting the Congress at the Centre as we are part of the coalition government in Karnataka,” he added. 

He said he has been touring the region to strengthen JD(S) for the Lok Sabha, ZP and TP elections  as Kumaraswamy has too many  responsibilities and has to provide good governance as the chief minister.