Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar on Friday came down heavily on the BJP and said the saffron party was trying to tarnish the image of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah by planning a padayatra to protest against MUDA irregularities.
Addressing presspersons here, the Deputy Chief Minister said the BJP is a “master of scams and they are digging their own grave in this case”. “Karnataka is the biggest State where the Congress is in power and hence they are trying to destabilise and bring it down at any cost. Their whole purpose is to bring disrepute to the Chief Minister. Let them do what they want, we will respond to it appropriately,” he said.
Pointing out that the State government is investigating the alleged multi-crore scam in the Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation Ltd., he said, “The BJP has sent its own agencies to investigate and create unnecessary trouble. Let them fight it out legally rather than trying to garner publicity and target people.”
“They are trying a similar trick in the MUDA case. The BJP and the JD(S) know that they are losing ground in the State and hence have joined hands to take out a padayatra. We will expose them,” he said.
Defending the Chief Minister, Mr. Shivakumar said the allotment of sites was compensation for MUDA acquiring land belonging to the Chief Minister without issuing any notification. “The bylaws allow allotment of sites if land is acquired without any notification. The Chief Minister’s family has not asked for sites in any specific locality but accepted whatever was allotted by MUDA. These sites were allotted during the previous government’s tenure. Sites were allotted to others during the same time and the Minister concerned will give details on this. We will reveal the scams that took place during the BJP government. As far as the Chief Minister’s family is concerned, everything has happened within the legal framework,” he said.
“On each day of the BJP-JD(S) padayatra from Bengaluru to Mysuru, we will expose one scam. The Chief Minister has already listed out the scams by the BJP. By doing the padayatra, they have given us an opportunity to expose their scams,” he said.
Published - July 26, 2024 07:54 pm IST
