Displeasure of Congress MLAs would take a turn in coming days, says Ex-CM

BENGALURU: Over the state government completing 100-days in office, Bharatiya Janata Party leader and previous Chief Minister Basavraj Bommai on Tuesday stated the Chief Minister Siddamaiah has lost faith of some of his party MLAs and wondered “what turn would the displeasure of MLAs take in coming days?”

After the release of a booklet “Kai Kota Yojanegalu Hali Tappida Adalitha” (Failure of Programmes Derailment of Administration” highlighting the failure of Congress led State Government in Karnataka, Bommai said the BJP government in the State presented a surplus budget in February this year but the Congress ruled State Government despite rise in taxes and availing loans, presented a deficit budget of about Rs 12,000 crore.

Bommai, also the then Finance Minister, said during Covid-19 pandemic, there was a deficit of Rs 14,000 crore and things were set right then and a surplus budget was presented. But, now the situation is not like that of Covid-19 in the State and the State Government has not released salaries to the employees or it has been delayed.

“Not a 1-km of road has been constructed in the three months after Congress returned to power in Karnataka,” said the previous Chief Minister and added that farmers of the State are reeling under drought but the State Government has not come to the rescue of the farming community. Farmers are under loss owing to drought after conducting sowing operations twice this season. Besides, recovery of loans has been going on at a faster pace.

He wanted the State Government to stop recovery of loans and convert short and mid-term loans to long-term loans to bail out farmers out of distress.

Bommai also said that about 50 farmers have committed suicides in the State in three months and pointed out that as many as 4,500 farmers committed suicide in the State during the earlier rule of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah from 2013 to 2018 which was the highest in the country then. “Similar days are returning to the State in the Congress rule,” he alleged.

State BJP President Nalin Kumar Kateel said the State Government has resorted to steps to curtail the freedom of speech through curbs imposed on media and social media and stated that “dictatorship” rule over Karnataka under the Congress government.

Kateel alleged that development works in the State have come to a standstill and no funds have been released by the State Government and said that “Not even MLAs are getting funds to initiate development works.”