MADHUGIRI (TUMAKURU DIST): Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday sounded the poll bugle, giving a call to people, especially beneficiaries of the government’s guarantee schemes, not to vote for the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
He alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not implemented any welfare schemes for the poor. “Did Modi implement any welfare programme? Do not vote for him,” he told the audience at the decennial ceremony of the ‘Ksheera Bhagya’ scheme, the government’s flagship programme launched during Siddaramaiah’s first term as chief minister in August 2013.
“Modi had said implementing guarantees for the poor would bankrupt the state government. Will favouring Adani and Ambani help the country’s progress? In Modi’s regime, only Adani and Ambani flourished, while the poor remained poor,” he alleged.
Continuing his tirade against the Centre, he said it had denied rice to Karnataka to implement the Anna Bhagya scheme; the Congress promised 10kg of rice per head per month to every BPL family. “The Food Corporation of India (FCI) had promised to give rice but the Centre instructed FCI not to do so, which shows how inhuman and anti-poor the central government is. Rice is now available and will be distributed to beneficiaries instead of money,” he said. He alleged that the previous BJP government had reduced the amount to 4kg from 7kg per head, which his government had distributed.
Siddaramaiah claimed the four guarantee schemes were a big success -- Shakti provides free travel in government buses to over 50 crore women, ‘Gruha Lakshmi’ will benefit 1.26 crore women, and ‘Anna Bhagya’ will reach 4.42 crore people. He also attacked the Modi government for failing to release even a single paisa for the Upper Bhadra Project, though he had promised Rs 5,300 crore in the current financial year, and urged the Centre to declare it a national project.
The lack of rain has resulted in a shortage of drinking water, he said and blamed the previous BJP government for not releasing funds, delaying the implementation of the Yettinahole project. His regime will now complete it, and also provide water to arid regions. He claimed that the ‘Ksheera Bhagya’ scheme, in which children in Anganwadis and from Class I to X in government and aided schools are given 150ml of milk, will help 54.68 lakh children. It costs the government Rs 1,000 crore.