BENGALURU: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah slammed the BJP and JDS legislators for boycotting the legislature session and took a jibe at the saffron party legislators for protesting in front of the Mahatma Gandhi's statue, saying instead they should have protested before the statue of Nathuram Godse.
While replying to the debate on the budget in the Council on Saturday, Siddaramaiah said BJP and JDS boycotting the proceedings show their anti-people and anti-democratic attitude. He said it is an irony that the BJP leaders are sitting in front of Gandhi’s statue instead of protesting in front of Godse’s statue.
“They (BJP) belong to the family of those who killed Gandhi. What moral right do they have to sit in front of Gandhi's statue and seek justice?” he thundered.
Siddaramaiah also attacked PM Modi and said the latter has pushed the country into a debt trap. “Since independence, the borrowings of the country was Rs 53 lakh crore but in the last 10 years, the Centre has borrowed Rs 118 lakh crore,” he said, adding that Modi was responsible for inflation.
Noting that people were happy about the guarantee schemes, the CM said Rs.35,410 crore is required for the schemes for the remaining period of the current financial year and there is a concrete action plan to mobilise resources. “Rs 34,654-crore resources will be mobilised for the guarantee schemes which include Rs 13,500 crore additional tax collection, additional loan of Rs 8,068 crore, Rs 6,086 crore through re-prioritisation of capital investment and Rs 7,000 crore through reprioritisation of revenue projects,” he said.
Reiterating that he will not let Karnataka go financially bankrupt, the CM said the size of the budget he presented is Rs 3,26,747 crore, which is 22% more than 2022-23. He said 76 programmes mentioned in the Congress poll manifesto have been announced in the budget.
Stating that 23 crore passengers have availed Shakti facility so far, the CM said 1.16 crore families have already registered under the Gruha Jyoti scheme. He said Rs 337.08 crore has been transferred to 4.42 crore beneficiaries of 57.51 lakh families so far under the Anna Bhagya scheme.
“During 2013-18, our government implemented various programmes with a budget of Rs. 7.27 lakh crore... but the BJP, which spent Rs 12.29 lakh crore failed to implement development works by citing Covid-19 as the reason for everything,” the CM said, adding that the government ordering an investigation into the Bitcoin scam, PSI recruitment scam, Covid-19 equipment/drug procurement scam etc had scared the BJP leaders.
After the CM’s response, the Karnataka Appropriation (No -2 ) Bill, 2023 was passed in the Council.