BENGALURU: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who led a protest in New Delhi along with his cabinet colleagues, Congress MPs and MLAs on Wednesday, alleged that the Union government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi meted out injustice to Karnataka in tax devolution.
The protest, according to political analysts, is part of the Grand Old party’s plan to prevent the saffron party from strengthening its base in Karnataka ahead of the LS elections.
The Centre meted out injustice to southern states, particularly Karnataka, in devolution of funds. As per the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution, the Finance Commission determines the share of funds between the Centre, States and Union Territories (UTs). The states’ struggle against the Centre for their due share within the legal framework will only strengthen the federal system, Siddaramaiah said, defending his government’s protest in New Delhi.
State being treated as a golden goose: Siddu
Siddaramaiah said population control has become a bane for Karnataka. Uttar Pradesh received Rs 2.8 lakh crore as tax share, despite not keeping its population under control. “I do not oppose allocation of more funds to poor states. But it should not happen at the cost of Karnataka, which is being treated as a golden goose,” he remarked.
Till the 14th Finance Commission, the tax share was based on the 1971 census. But the 15th Finance Commission considered the 2011 census and took the state’s population, area, forest cover, per capita income and development of its communities as yardsticks, he said. These yardsticks should be revised and the injustice meted out by the Centre to the state should be set right in the 16th Finance Commission’s report, he added. “The state lost its tax share of Rs 1.87 lakh crore. We hope the Centre will respond positively to our protest to protect the interests of Karnataka and Kannadigas...,” he said, adding that the Congress party’s protest was apolitical and could not be termed a fight between the Congress and BJP.
Siddaramaiah criticised the Centre for being “unresponsive” to the state’s appeals. It did not release NDRF funds to tackle drought and refused to give approval for Mahadayi and Mekedatu projects, he said.
Replying to BJP’s allegation that the state will become bankrupt owing to implementation of the guarantee schemes, Siddaramaiah said despite their implementation, the state’s financial status is sound. Karnataka will never go bankrupt. People will teach a lesson to BJP in the coming LS elections for criticising the Congress’ guarantees, he added.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that devolution of funds to Karnataka was decided by the finance commission and not by the Union government. It is the responsibility of the Union government to ensure justice to the states. If it can’t, there is no need for such a government, Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar said.
CM takes dig at Gowda
Siddaramaiah took a dig at JDS supremo HD Deve Gowda for praising PM Modi. “I watched Deve Gowda speaking about the Mekedatu project during the parliamentary session. Gowda heaped praise on Modi as the latter treated the former with great affection like no other PM did. Let Gowda get clearance for the project from the Centre,” Siddaramaiah said.
BJP stages counter protest in Bengaluru
Bengaluru: To counter the Congress protest, Karnataka BJP leaders staged a demonstration at Gandhi statue near Vidhana Soudha on Wednesday
