MANGALURU: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the government will provide loans to members of women’s self-help groups at zero percent interest soon. This announcement was made at the birth centenary celebration of former prime minister late Indira Gandhi at Nehru Maidan here on Saturday.
Inaugurating the event, he recalled various pro-people programmes of Gandhi during her regime.
“Noticing the bold decision of Indira Gandhi during freedom struggle of Bangladesh, former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee lauded her and called her ‘Durgi’. The decision on nationalisation of banks allowed poor people access to banks. The Land Reform Act facilitated thousands of farmers to avail land. The economic policy introduced by Indira Gandhi helped India to be identified at the global level”, he said.
Siddaramaiah claimed he had introduced several pro-people programmes after being inspired by Gandhi.
“Congress had assured of introducing around 165 different programmes during the election, of which 125 have already been implemented. Though Congress government is doing well in the state, opposition parties are engaged in condemning the government. If BJP is trying to divide people in the name of Hindutva, Congress party is uniting the people,” he said.
On demonetisation
Siddaramaiah condemned Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not being well-prepared before going ahead with the decision of banning high value currency notes. “The ban on currency notes is not new as the then prime minister Morarji Desai had also withdrawn currency notes.
Though the intention of ban on high value currency notes was to curb the circulation of fake currency notes and check black money holders, none of the real culprits have been toiling in long queues in any part of the country to exchange their old currency notes. Modi did not take precautionary measures before executiing his plan,” he said.