B.S. Yeddyurappa, MP and national vice-president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, has said that the Congress government in the State has failed to address the problems of the people.
Addressing a gathering during the “raitha chitanya yatre” that arrived here on Sunday, Mr. Yeddyurappa said the State Ministers were not touring their constituencies when the farmers were reeling under severe drought. Stating that more than 500 farmers had committed suicide in the State, he sought to know whether compensation had been paid to the families of all the farmers, who had taken the extreme step.
Claiming that he used to work for 12 hours a day when he was the Chief Minister of Karnataka, he urged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to dedicate all his time to resolving the problems of poor people. People were carefully comparing the governance of Congress government in State with that of the previous BJP government, he said.
Mr. Yeddyurappa wanted to know why several pro-people schemes, including the suvarna gram bhagya and suvarna bhavi, launched during his tenure as Chief Minister, had been stopped by Mr. Siddaramaiah. Taking exception to the alleged remarks of Mr. Siddaramaiah against Prime Minister Narendra that the latter should not have been bon in a State where Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel were born, Mr. Yeddyurappa exhorted Mr. Siddaramaiah to apologise to Mr. Modi.
Referring to the reports that the State was facing dearth of funds for development programmes, Mr. Yeddyurappa wanted to know what happened to the huge funds he had accumulated during his tenure as the Chief Minister. He said, if voted back to power in the State, he would waive the loans taken by farmer from cooperative banks and also the interest on loans taken from nationalised banks. The Union government had released adequate funds for the development of gram panchayats and town municipalities, he said and sought to know how the farmers would be able to repay the short and medium term loans in the coming years. Mr. Yeddyurappa asked Mr. Siddaramaiah to step down for his failure to waive farm loans.
Listing our various schemes he had launched during his tenure as Chief Minister, Mr. Yeddyurappa said, he had released Rs. 220 crore for filling 20 tanks in Chamarajanagar district with water and another Rs. 3 crore for supply of drinking water at M.M. Hills Mr. Yeddyurappa criticised the police personnel for allegedly harassing his party workers, recently. The police had beaten up the gram panchayat president, he said and added that such acts would not be tolerated.
BJP leaders Shobha Karandlaje, Basavaraja Bommai and State vice-president of the BJP A.R. Krishnamurthy were present.
State Ministers are not touring their constituencies, when the farmers are distressed over crop failure.
B.S. Yeddyurappa,
MP and national vice-president
of BJP
