Stating that Karnataka has received the highest drought relief amount from the Union government, Leader of Opposition in Legislative Assembly R. Ashok has urged the State government to immediately initiate the process to pay compensation directly to farmers by adding its (State government) share.
Addressing a press conference in Hubballi on Tuesday, he said that the Union government has responded to the problems of farmers and now if the State government fails to immediately release the amount to farmers, then it is going to show that it (State government) is anti-farmers.
Refuting the allegation by Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar that the Centre has paid very little drought relief, he said that during Manmohan Singh-led UPA government even less relief was paid meting out injustice to Karnataka.
Expressing doubts over the relief amount being misused by the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government for elections, he demanded that the amount should be paid directly to the bank accounts of farmers.
Mr. Ashok said that during the floods in 2019-20, the State government sought a relief of ₹3,837 crore and the Centre released ₹3,412 crore, i.e., 82% of the demand.
“During the floods of 2020-21, the Centre released ₹1,480 crore against a demand of ₹2,242 crore. During the UPA rule, out of the demand for ₹44,838 crore, only ₹4,571 crore was released. But, during the NDA rule, ₹15,920 crore has been released against a demand for ₹25,591 crore, which comes to 62.21%. Whereas under the UPA rule, only 10% of the demand was released,” he said.
Mr. Ashok said that Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman sought the permission of the Election Commission for releasing drought relief. The Congress leaders, who came to know about it, approached the Supreme Court and are now claiming that they got it released.
He also said that the Congress will snatch away reservation for backward classes and give it to minorities.
On the Prajwal Revanna video clips, he said that the former Chief Minister H.K. Kumaraswamy has already clarified that the BJP has nothing to do with the case. As he has contested as a BJP-Janata Dal(S) candidate now, the BJP will give an answer if he gets elected.
