BENGALURU: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday appealed to the Bharatiya Janata Party led National Democratic Alliance at the Centre to initiate steps fair amount of grants to States for development while alleging that in recent years the Central Government deviated from its Constitutional principles thereby meting out “discrimination” in allocation of funds to States.
Addressing the gathering after unfurling the national flag on the occasion of 78th Independence Day in Bengaluru city, Siddaramaiah criticized the Central Government of delay in the release of financial share to States and without no other States have been compelled to seek legal course of action to get their rightful share from the Central Government.
Over the Centre-State relations, the Chief Minister termed “It has become a challenge” and stated “The Constitution clearly outlines the relationship between the Centre and the States within our federal system. While the States are responsible for implementing welfare programmes, it is the responsibility of the Central Government to provide the States required resources to support welfare programmes.”
In a dig at BJP’s alleged attempts to destabilize State Governments led by opposition parties, Siddaramaiah “The electorate, with their political acumen, made it clear in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections that democracy cannot be “a puppet in anyone’s hands.”
Continuing, he said, the people of the country have never forgiven backdoor politics that disregard people’s mandate. In a democratic set-up opposition parties are expected to function responsibly in tandem with the principles of the Constitution.
Siddaramaiah said the concept of Universal Basic Income is being implemented through 5-guarantee schemes of the State Government such as free travel for women in State run buses, Rs 2,000 cash benefit scheme for a female head of a family, up to 200 units of free power to a customer among two others.
He asserted the 5-guarantees will continue and the successful implementation of the schemes will give befitting reply through economic growth of the State to those (BJP and Janata Dal Secular) who term the State will go ‘bankrupt’ by the guarantee schemes implementation.
“We are proud of it (guarantee schemes)”, said the Chief and stated Karnataka is the only State implementing such programmes for the people in a big way.
