BENGALURU: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday criticised the Union government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging that Public Sector Banks (PSBs) have written off Rs 6.15 lakh crore in loans over the past five years.
Expressing displeasure in a post on his ‘X’ account, Siddaramaiah cited data from the Union Finance ministry, saying PSBs have written off Rs 6,15,647 crore, which comes to an average of Rs 1,23,129 crore per year. “This amount is more than double the annual cost of Karnataka’s welfare-oriented Guarantee Schemes,’’ he said. Karnataka’s guarantee schemes cost around Rs 60,000 crore per year.
The CM slammed BJP leaders who he said “lecture us for supporting the common people while quietly enabling a system that writes off astronomical sums for rich corporates”. He demanded that the people and nation deserve answers on how much of these write-offs belong to companies linked to PM Modi’s close friends.
He also questioned how many beneficiaries had generously donated to the BJP through Electoral Bonds.
The CM asked how much of the written-off amount from 2014-2020 had actually been recovered. “Before targeting welfare programmes that empower the poor, BJP must explain why public money is being used to cushion the failures of its favourite corporate defaulters. This is not fiscal prudence. This is political patronage at the cost of the poor,’’ Siddaramaiah alleged.