Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday lashed out at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders for criticising his budget and said that “the budget was presented on the confident note of winning the Assembly elections and forming the government again in the State.”
He was addressing a gathering after laying the foundation stone for development projects being taken up at a cost ₹ 2,097 crore in Maski Assembly Constituency and also announcing Maski as a new taluk in Raichur district.
Mr. Siddaramaiah, who criticised B.S. Yeddyurappa, BJP State president, for what he said making irresponsible remarks on his record sixth budget as Chief Minister, said, “We have announced new schemes for agriculture, health and education sectors. In a special programme, girl students can study from class one to higher education in government-run institutions without paying fee.”
He said that considering the losses incurred in dry land farming, each farmer would get ₹ 5,000 to ₹ 1,000 per hectare of land. This benefit would be extended to 70 lakh farmers in the State and ₹ 3,500 crore has been earmarked for this, he added.
The Chief Minister reiterated that his government had thrown focus on development of all communities with several programmes. “In a democracy, people are the masters and their representatives are their servants. We served the people like servants by fulfilling 165 promises made in our last election manifesto,” he and asked what had Mr. Yeddyurappa and former Chief Ministers D.V. Sadananda Gowda and Jagadish Shettar had done for the people when they were in power. Seeking the blessings of the people of the State to form a Congress government again, the Chief Minister said, “I confidently say that our popular schemes have helped farmers, the poorer section and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The government has spent ₹ 88,000 crore under the Special Component Plan and Tribal Sub Plan, while the previous BJP government had spent only ₹ 22,000 crore under this head.”
K.R. Ramesh Kumar, Minister for Health and Family Welfare, said that under a new health scheme, 1.43 lakh families would benefit shortly. “We have provided a corruption-free government. But, Opposition leaders are blaming us without producing any documents related to their charge,” he said.
Transport and district in-charge Minister H.M. Revanna said that the government has filled 94,000 vacant posts, particularly under the Power and Transport ministries. Apart from this, 4,700 posts were filled under Article 371(J) which provides special status to the backward Hyderabad Karnataka region.
Pratapgouda Patil, MLA, who presided over the programme, urged the Chief Minister to take action to widen and modernise the Maski Nala, which now irrigates 7,500 acres of land, to extend irrigation benefits to more dry land.
