BENGALURU: Making a strong defence of his government in the face of a series of corruption charges made by opposition Congress, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Monday challenged Congress leaders to come clean on allegations of corruption against them, and said till then, they have no moral right to speak on corruption.
Speaking on the floor of the Assembly, Bommai said when Siddaramaiah was chief minister, three surveys were conducted, all of which ranked Karnataka as the most corrupt state. “For many works, including TenderSURE, bidders who quoted more than 53 per cent were awarded contracts. Many road works were given to bidders who quoted 47 per cent. Corruption and Congress are two faces of the same coin,” he commented.
During the Siddaramiah government, 59 charges of corruption were made before the Anti-Corruption Bureau. “Instead of investigating the allegations, they made the Lokayukta powerless. All the 59 cases were diluted either by issuing B reports or not initiating inquiries. We are re-routing all these complaints to the Lokayukta. Congress is fooling people. Congress leaders were safeguarding corruption. They are pasting posters which is an all-time low in politics,” he said.
“When Congress members and the Civil Contract Association made allegations of 40 per cent commission against our government, I asked them to furnish proof to me or to the Lokayukta or to the Court. But they did not,” he said.
Tackled floods, Covid pandemic successfully: CM
“In the last five years, BJP has been in power for four years. When BS Yediyurappa took oath as chief minister in 2019, there were heavy floods and when we were tackling it, we had to face Covid for one-and-a-half years. In spite of all the challenges, we were successful in excelling and that is why we have a surplus budget.
We could not achieve all the promises made in our manifesto as we had many challenges. When Siddaramaiah was CM, he had five years. But only 67 out of 173 assurances made in the Congress manifesto were achieved. Congress and Siddaramiah did not give any Bhagyas, but only dourbhagyas (misery),” he added.
“Farmer suicides were highest during the previous Congress government and the solution for that was to fire at farmers. Now they come and preach us, and take pro-farmer stands,” he added.