BENGALURU: Opposition Chief Whip in the Legislative Council N Ravi Kumar on Saturday demanded a white paper on the “source of funding” for Rs 32,611 crore announced for the coastal region during Friday’s cabinet meeting in Mangaluru.
“Karnataka is on the brink of a financial precipice. Lakhs of widows and aged persons have not received their monthly pension for the last five months. Bills of Rs 30,000 crore are pending for contractors in three departments. This is a cleverly crafted exercise to create a feel-good factor, nothing more than that,” Ravi Kumar said.
The BJP leader termed it a make-believe exercise by a financially bankrupt government only to hoodwink people of the coastal region. He said there are no funds to fill potholes in Bengaluru and the condition and quality of basic infrastructure in the state capital is pathetic.
Home Minister Priyank Kharge hit back, saying the saffron party has started panicking after seeing the government’s development initiatives. BJP has turned coastal Karnataka into a laboratory for communalism and the state government is transforming it into a laboratory for development, he added.
The announcement of development work for the three coastal Karnataka districts is historic, he said, and questioned why BJP, which had made the region a vote bank, failed to take such initiatives.