BENGALURU: Defending his government’s guarantee schemes, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday said his economics is nothing but collecting tax from the rich and giving it to the poor, women and Dalits to empower them.
Replying to the governor’s address, which stressed on the guarantees, Siddaramaiah said, “In the last nine months, we have tried to give justice to deprived classes through guarantees. Our schemes are helping crores of people and empowering the poor to come out of the BPL status,” he added.
As he was delivering his speech, opposition members walked out, alleging that the chief minister’s speech was a political speech and not a reply to the governor’s address.
Continuing, Siddaramaiah said his government allocated Rs 36,000 crore for guarantee schemes last year and increased it to Rs 52,000 crore this financial year. “We did it for the poor and backward class people. Beneficiaries are happy, but opposition parties call them freebies. I am happy that our guarantee schemes have helped many, cutting across caste and religion lines,” he said.
Ever since the guarantee schemes were implemented, over 60 lakh women have travelled freely, Rs 8,553 crore of the Rs 10,225 crore kept for Anna bhagya has been spent, 1.18 crore women heads of families have received Rs 2,000 per month and many more. “Most importantly, there is no middleman in this,” he said.
When Opposition parties termed it “Siddanomics”, the chief minister said he does not know about it, but all he knows is good economics which he did through guarantees. “Because of these, economic stability has been good,” he claimed.
He said BJP never came to power in the state of its own strength. Right from BS Yediyurappa, Jagadish Shettar, DV Sadananda Gowda to Basavaraj Bommai, they all chose Operation Kamala to come to power through the backdoor. “We did justice as an opposition party too and never lied like the BJP,” he said. The BJP government, which was filled with hatred, never moved, he alleged.
He said that BJP’s governance was always anti-Dalit, anti-backward classes, anti-minority, anti-farmers, anti-labour and anti-women.
Slamming the Centre for not releasing the state’s share of taxes, he said, “We pay Rs 100 as tax and in return they give us only Rs 13. They have not released funds for drought relief, though we have sent many letters and met them personally,” he said. He alleged that the Centre did not provide required rice to the state for the Anna Bhagya scheme, because of which the state government is giving money instead of additional 5 kg of rice to the beneficiaries.