The District Congress Committee (DCC) took out a procession and staged a dharna here on Tuesday, urging the BJP government in the State to “furnish accounts for Rs. 88,817.44 crore released by the Union government”. They demanded that the government release details immediately as to how the money was spent.
The agitation had been launched seeking accounts for the money released by the UPA government since 2008, agitators said. They added that the Union government had released Rs. 47,639.65 crore from the central pool of taxes and sanctioned Rs. 41,186.79 crore in grants to Karnataka.
The Union government had also loaned the State Rs. 6,675 crore in the last four years for various purposes.
‘Misuse’
The agitators alleged that the BJP government had misused these funds instead of utilising them for the welfare of the people.
“The State government has failed to maintain transparency in administration and to protect the interests of the common man,” they said.
The agitators submitted a memorandum in this regard to Governor H R Bhardwaj through Deputy Commissioner V.P. Ikkeri. They said that the agitation would be intensified unless the State government gave a satisfactory reply on the matter.
Criticised
Davangere Staff Correspondent writes:
The Davangere unit of the Congress strongly criticised the BJP government in the State for allegedly misleading the people by claiming that the Centre had not released grants to Karnataka due to the non-Congress State government.
Party workers, led by DCC president Abdul Jabbar and general secretary D. Basavaraj, took out a procession in Davangere on Tuesday from Beeralingeshwara temple to the Deputy Commissioner’s office. Congress workers raised slogans against the BJP government for not disclosing the amount released by the Centre.
Later, addressing party workers outside the Deputy Commissioner’s office, Mr. Basavaraj said that if these grants had been properly used, the scenario of the whole State could have been different.
