Governor H R Bhardwaj commended the government in his customary address to the joint session of the state legislature.
Bhardwaj, in his speech prepared by the government, praised the Chief Minister and his Cabinet colleagues for “pursuing the development agenda and also ensuring all-round development of the state”.“I am happy to state that the financial status of my government has been very sound. Over the last five years, the tax revenues of the state have more than doubled and now stands highest in the country -- 10 pc of the GSDP,” Bhardwaj said.
He claimed that the law and order situation in the state had been good and the state had not witnessed any communal incidents. “Our police has done an excellent job in maintaining peace, controlling naxal menace and effectively handling the situation at the time of agitation related to North-East. Similarly, we are tackling crimes against women with iron hand,” he said.
'Bundle of lies’: Opposition
Meanwhile, dubbing the address of Governor H R Bhardwaj to the state legislature ‘a bundle of lies,’ the opposition parties, including the Congress and JD(S), slammed it as a postmortem report of the dead government.
Reacting sharply to the Governor’s customary address o, Opposition leader Siddaramaiah said: “The government is lying through the Governor by presenting a rosy picture, which is diametrically opposite the ground reality.”
He said that contrary to the address, the performance of the government in the power sector is dismal, drinking water situation is alarming and the food grain production has taken a nosedive. If the government’s claim that it had added about 4,593 MW of power to the state grid is true, then why are most parts of the state in darkness? he asked. He recollected former minister Shobha Karandlaje’s statement that the crime graph in the state is going up and women and children are the worst-hit.
Accusing the state government of failing to achieve even 40 per cent of what it promised in the 2012-13 budget, Siddaramaiah said that Shettar has no moral right to present the budget as his government’s term ends in April.
“We have no plans to move a no-confidence motion against government as it may collapse on its own any time. We will expose the government during the debate on giving vote of thanks to Governor’s address,” he said.Opposition Congress leader in the Legislative Council S R Patil alleged that the government had misused the office of the Raj Bhavan by making the Governor read out a false report on its performance.