The former Chief Minister and BJP’s national vice-president B.S. Yeddyurappa has accused Chief Minister Siddaramaiah of giving importance only to “migrated” Congress leaders and not “original” Congress leaders.
“The Chief Minister is saying that he want to make Karnataka a BJP-free State, but the fact is that he is hell bent on making a Congress-free Karnataka with his partisan nature,” he told presspersons here on Sunday,
Claiming that there was a clear division within the Congress, Mr. Yeddyurappa said that there was one group which “migrated to Congress with Mr. Siddaramaiah” and the other is of original Congress leaders.
“Mr. Siddaramaiah is giving importance only to his supporters and those ministers who are original Congressmen have been neglected by the Chief Minister,” he said.
Stating that Water Resources Minister M.B. Patil had not been given adequate funds by the Chief Minister for irrigation projects, Mr. Yeddyurappa said that the irrigation projects in the State were neglected because of the dearth of funds. Mr. Yeddyurappa accused the Chief Minister of not fulfilling several important promises he made including the establishment of Agriculture Price Commission to regulate the prices of agricultural commodities and not forming the Lake Development Authority to develop the lakes in the State. He also accused him of stopping Suvarna Grama scheme launched by the previous BJP government for the development of rural areas.
National vice-president of the BJP B.S. Yeddyurappa, MP, has said that the continuing suicides by farmers were due to the alleged misrule and misplaced priorities pursued in the previous Congress-run governments in the Centre for 60 plus years.
Corrective steps
The present BJP-led NDA government headed by Narendra Modi has initiated corrective steps to help the farmers to overcome their woes.
Addressing a press conference in Kalaburagi on Saturday, Mr. Yeddyurappa was referring to the criticism of the Congress that Mr. Modi had no time to visit the farmers who were in distress.
He said the first step towards correcting the aberrations of the previous Congress government was initiated by the Modi government by increasing the compensation paid under the Natural Calamity Fund to the farmers who had lost their crops, houses, and cattle in natural calamities. “This one measure has helped lakhs of farmers who suffered heavy losses this year, due to the vagaries of the weather not only in Karnataka but throughout the country,” he said.
He defended the amendment to the Land Acquisition Act and said that it was a misconception to claim that this amendment would harm the interests of the farmers.