Bengaluru: The BJP has demanded the government constitute a legislature committee to look into the alleged misappropriation of Rs. 35,000 crore in the 2016-17 budget presented by then Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
Speaking to reporters here on Saturday, BJP general secretary C.T. Ravi urged Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy to conduct a thorough inquiry based on the CAG report, which had disclosed a mismatch of Rs. 35,000 crore in the 2016-17 budget.
Hitting out at Mr Siddaramaiah for his “vague” response to the charge, he accused him of trying to downplay the issue when he should be giving an account of every paisa spent in the 2016-17 budget.
“He cannot evade responding to the allegation of major financial irregularities during his term,” Mr. Ravi asserted.
The BJP leader regretted that Mr Kumaraswamy had not uttered a single word on the CAG report.
“I think he is afraid to take action in the matter,” he maintained.
Responding to the Chief Minister's charge that the Centre had failed to release grants to the state, the BJP leader said that the Union government had given Rs. 1,98,868 crore under various schemes to Karnataka. “The UPA government released an NDRF grant of only Rs 3779 crore to Karnataka in the period 2004-14 and SDRF grant of Rs. 1063 crore. In comparison, the NDA government has in the last four years released an NDRF grant of Rs. 5668 crore and SDRF grant of Rs. 799 crore to the state,” he argued, accusing the Kumaraswamy government of failing to utilise the Central grants.
“The state has not submitted a utilisation certificate to the Centre for release of the remaining grants,” he added.
