Yeddyurappa promises ₹ 10,000-cr.fund for farm market intervention

‘Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has pushed the State to the brink of bankruptcy’

State BJP president B.S. Yeddyurappa addressing the Parivarthana rally in Belagavi on Monday.

The former Chief Minister and BJP State president B.S. Yeddyurappa has accused Chief Minister Siddaramaiah of leading the State to the brink of bankruptcy and pushing it into a debt cycle. The Chief Minister has taken loans of over ₹ 1.2 lakh crore making all the people in the State debtors, Mr. Yeddyurappa said.

Mr. Siddaramaiah is leading such a penniless government that he diverted over ₹ 1,400 crore from the public sector Mysore Minerals to settle accounts of banks after farm loans were waived. He had to mortgage corner sites in government layouts and industrial areas to gather ₹ 975 crore to run the government. This is such an insolvent government that it doesn’t have money to pay salaries of private secretaries to MLAs and MLCs, he said.

Mr. Yeddyurappa listed all the schemes introduced during his term as Chief Minister and said that people were still recalling those days. He announced an ambitious plan to link all reservoirs so that all farmers in the State could get water for irrigation.

“We will set up a ₹ 10,000-crore fund for market intervention to arrest fall in crop prices,” he said.

Mr. Yeddyurappa said that the Chief Minister had transferred Commissioner of Collegiate Education Ajay Nagabhushan for raising questions about over pricing laptops to be distributed to college students. The honest IAS officer belongs to the Chief Minister’s community. But he had to suffer this fate as honest officers cannot survive in Karnataka during this regime, he said. While the Chief Minister goes around saying GST has harmed the State’s interests, the Chief Secretary has given a report saying that it has improved the State’s economy, the BJP’s Chief Ministerial candidate said. What is wrong with you, Mr. Siddaramaiah? Why are you not transferring some departments to the Suvarna Soudha from Bengaluru, he asked.

CM’s dreams

Union Minister H.N. Ananth Kumar ridiculed the State government’s advertisement campaign about Mr. Siddaramaiah having dreams about Karnataka.

“If he is having dreams after four-and-a-half years of rule, he must have been sleeping all these days. I think he was sleeping under a woollen blanket. Those who are alert and awake don’t dream. Only those who are asleep, dream,” he said and asked the crowd to repeat after him.

Earlier, Abhay Patil, former MLA, requested the Union government to set up facilities to help farmers export vegetables and fruits from Belagavi to Europe and West Asian countries.

He also sought steps to attract industrial investment, and the Union government’s efforts to set up an apparel park that could help the many weavers in Belagavi old city.