BENGALURU: The BJP turned the tables on the state government which has accused the Centre of cutting funds for programmes implemented under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and also effecting a reduction in the state’s kerosene quota.
BJP state president Prahlad Joshi on Wednesday accused the ministers in the Siddaramaiah government of trying to blame the Centre “for their own failures”.
Referring to Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister H K Patil’s allegation that the Centre had meted out a raw deal to Karnataka by releasing Rs 650 crore against Rs 3,315 crore, Joshi said Rs 1,367 crore has been released and another Rs 600-Rs 700 crore is being released now after the state government submitted its utilisation certificate for the third quarter of the year. “This is far higher than the Rs 1,596 crore released by the UPA government for the state in 2013-14,” Joshi said.
Joshi also said that the reduction in kerosene quota in proportion to rise in LPG connections has been on since 2009. The state’s kerosene quota which was 4,61,780 tonnes in 2009 was reduced to 4,61,340 tonnes in 2009-10, 4,37,986 tonnes in 2010-11 and 4,19,879 tonnes in 2011-12. The quota of 1.30 lakh tonnes for the present quarter of 2014-15 will be supplied without any cut, Joshi added.