BENGALURU/KOLAR : Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Siddaramaiah and Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr K Sudhakar traded barbs against each other over the issue of corruption. In a heated war of words, Siddaramaiah alleged that Sudhakar had misappropriated funds to the tune of Rs 3,000 during the Covid-19 pandemic 2020-21. Reacting to the charge, Sudhakar said that he would be ready for execution in public if the charges against him were proved.
Sudhakar had on Tuesday cited a CAG report and alleged that there was corruption to the tune of Rs 35,000 crore during the Siddaramaiah-led Congress regime (2013-18). Reacting to the charge, Sidaramaiah presented certain documents of the CAG before the media questioning Sudhakar’s allegations.
“The AG’s report on the financial status for the year 2016-17 was given in 2018. It had said that “non-reconciliation of expenditure was to the extent of 19 per cent (Rs 35,000 crore) of the total expenditure of Rs 1,86,052 crore in the budget”, he explained. “Most of the time, the reconciliation expenditure doesn’t match with the total expenditure and in 2008-09 there was 49 per cent non-recognised grant. Do you know which government was in power? In 2015-16, only 16 per cent of grants were unmatched when we were in power”, he said He added, “Assembly Speaker Vishweshwara Hegde Kageri has not placed Public Accounts Committee chairman HK Patil’s report in the House with regard to Rs 3,000 corruption charges against Sudhakar as he (Kageri) is a puppet of RSS”.
In fact, former union minister M Veerappa Moily was against issuing Congress party ticket to Sudhakar (who was with the Congress then) from Chikkaballapura Assembly seat in 2018 as he had said that “he should not be given a ticket as he is a big fraud”, Siddaramaiah revealed.
On Sudhakar’s allegation about a scam in white topping works in Bengaluru, Siddaramaiah clarified that the then-state government led by BS Yeddyurappa had appointed a committee that investigated the case and filed its report following which the government clarified that there was no wrongdoing.
On Siddaramaiah declaring that he would contest from Kolar constituency, Dr Sudhakar said that some Congress leaders in the district have misguided the former chief minister. He said that he will be defeated in the Assembly election from Kolar seat and predicted that Siddaramaiah will not contest from Kolar and choose Varuna constituency instead.