Bharatiya Janata Party Legislature Party leader Jagadish Shettar on Monday slammed the Congress government for choosing the Governor’s address to the joint session of the legislature to mount an attack on the previous government on corruption cases and scams “without any evidence”.
The former Chief Minister said that the Governor had set a new precedent by doing this. “The Governor’s speech has not raised any specific instance of corruption. The Congress, which leads the United Progressive Alliance, has no moral right to talk about corruption given that they have 2G and other scams to contend with.”
‘Nothing new’
The Governor, in his speech, criticised the five-year BJP rule, saying that public money had been swindled and esteem of the State had been lowered by scams and corruption cases. “There is nothing new in the Governor’s address. All old schemes of our government have been repeated in the address,” Mr. Shettar told presspersons.
Poser
“If the previous government swindled money, how can this Congress government announce implementation of schemes worth over Rs. 6,000 crore soon after it came to power?” Mr. Shettar asked. The BJP also demanded the government to come out with a White Paper on the State’s finances.
The Governor had in his address earlier said: “Public money has been swindled and developmental works have come to a halt. Consequently, people have lost faith in political parties. The growing public cynicism has proved detrimental to democratic traditions.”
Mr. Shettar said: “The Governor neither mentioned new policies nor programmes. All schemes mentioned in our budget presented on February 8 have been repeated.” He said that the government seemed to be in a hurry to implement promises mentioned in its poll manifesto.
He said that without assessing adverse consequences for areca growers or debate in the House, the government had announced the gutka ban. The State produces nearly 60 per cent of the country’s arecanut output, Mr Shettar said.
‘Charge sheet’
Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council and former Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda described the Governor’s address as a “charge sheet against the previous BJP government” and that Congress was firing from Mr. Bhardwaj’s shoulders. He said that the Congress government had insulted the post of Governor by doing so.
Noting that, there were no new programmes in the address, he said it was “cheap liquor.”
KJP too
The former Chief Minister and Karnataka Janata Paksha floor leader in the Assembly, B S Yeddyurappa also hit out at the government for referring to scams during the BJP rule and said the image of the UPA government too was dented on account of the involvement of its leaders in several multi-crore scams.
He said the Governor’s address was “silent” on the drought in the State and scarcity of drinking water in villages.
He welcomed the government’s decision to implement the Yettinahole project to cater to the drinking water requirements of Kolar, Chickballapur and Tumkur districts.
