BJP demands white paper on Karnataka's financial status

Karnataka BJP state president B.Y. Vijayendra has demanded that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah present a white paper on the state's financial condition before he tables his 16th state budget on March 7.

“Karnataka is on the verge of financial bankruptcy and the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government is unable to deliver the guarantees, resorting to price hike and has taken fresh loans worth Rs 1.90 lakh crore in the last two years,” alleged Vijayendra on Wednesday while addressing a press meet at the BJP office in Bengaluru.

Elaborating on the recent price hikes, the BJP MLA from Shikaripura said, “The Congress government has hiked property guidance value by 30%, property registration fee by 600%, vehicle registration fee by 10%, service fee at hospitals by 5%, electricity rates by 14.5%, water rates by 30% and milk prices by 15%. The Metro rail fare has been increased by 50% by the fare fixation committee on the insistence of the state government in Bengaluru, though the metro fares are not hiked in other cities like Chennai, Lucknow, Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi. The KSRTC is on the verge of closure as the government is yet to pay the accrued dues worth Rs 7,000 crore to the corporation, while energy minister George has admitted that the government departments like PWD and Irrigation have pending bills worth Rs 6,000 crore.”

Slamming the chief minister for diverting funds meant for SC and ST communities for the guarantee schemes, Vijayendra said, “The guarantees announced by the Congress party have limited purpose and are functional only during the elections or bypolls. For the last 4-5 months, the beneficiaries of the Grihalakshmi scheme have not received the payment owing to a dearth of funds. However, you can expect the scheme to resume during the upcoming TP and ZP polls,” mocked Vijayendra, adding that there was no money to provide development grants to the MLAs.

Taking a dig at the government announcing big budget projects in the city, the BJP leader mocked the chief minister for “failing” to fill up the potholes and giving assurances of building cost-intensive projects like an underground tunnel road. “The debt burden is already huge. Where will the government get the money to fund these massive projects?,” he asked.

Cornering the Siddaramaiah government over its failure to provide the BPL families additional five kilos of rice as promised, Vijayendra demanded to know why the state government had neither paid the money for five kilos to the beneficiaries nor purchased rice from the Centre which is available at a cost of Rs 22 per kilo.

“As mentioned by Union minister Prahlad Joshi, the Karnataka government has failed to purchase rice though it is now available as it has no money to buy,” said Vijayendra, adding that the chief minister who is diverting finds meant for SC and ST communities was promising to award them government contracts up to Rs 2 crore.