Chief Minister Siddaramaiah took a veiled swipe at the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday when he said it was unethical to misuse religion for political gains. Without taking names, he said a political party was doing so.
He said the Congress government would not allow any party to divide society on caste and community lines, and would curb forces trying to create enmity and unrest among people. He was speaking at the valedictory function of the Suttur Jathra Mahotsava.
He urged people to be weary of divisive forces and said it was inhuman to divide society for “political benefits”. He also said he had lived up to the expectations of the public and fulfilled the promises made in the 2013 poll manifesto. Listing his government’s achievements, he said they had distributed over 1.8 lakh laptops to students who had passed PU, irrespective of caste.
H.C. Mahadevappa, Minister for Public Works and the district in-charge, said the Congress had provided stable and able governance in the past four and a half years. He also said it had fulfilled all the promises and introduced many more schemes for the welfare of the downtrodden and weaker sections of society.
"20 districts open defecation-free"
In his speech, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister H.K. Patil said 20 districts have been made open defecation-free and five more would follow suit soon. He claimed that over 86% of the State’s population now had access to toilet facility. Over 1.5 crore rural people have been provided with pure drinking water across the State under the Congress rule under different schemes, he added.
Suttur seer Sri Shivaratri Deshikendra Swami, Sri Siddarama Mahaswami of Naganuru Rudrakshi Mutt, Belagavi, and Sri Mallikarjuna Murugharajendra Mahaswami of Anandapuram were among those present at the function.
