B.S. Yeddyurappa, the former Chief Minister and Shivamogga MP, has on Wednesday that the Siddaramaiah-government had failed in giving a push to rural development in the State.
Addressing presspersons here, Mr. Yeddyurappa said that though the State government had announced the ‘Namma Grama, Namma Raste’ scheme with much fanfare, no roads had been constructed in rural areas. Mr. Siddaramaih had assured to construct 20 kilometres of roads in rural areas of all Assembly Constituencies. But no action had been taken yet, he said.
‘No action’
Though the State government had announced the formation of the Lake Development Authority, no concrete action had been taken for development or desilting of lakes in rural areas. Similarly, though the government had set up the Agricultural Price Commission, it lacked teeth.
The Siddaramaiah-government was making a lot of noise about its Anna Bhagya scheme. But the fact was that nearly 95 per cent of rice for the scheme was being supplied by the Union government, with the State bearing the rest, Mr. Yeddyurappa said.It was not just rice, the Centre was providing even wheat and sugar at subsidised rates to the State, he said.
While wheat was being provided at Rs. 2 per kg to the State, sugar was being provided at Rs. 13.50 per kg. So, it was incorrect on the part of the State government to hog credit for it, he said. A lot of horticultural crops had been damaged due to unseasonal rains in the State. But the State government had failed to compensate the farmers adequately. It had also not approached the Centre for help in this regard, he said.
Though the State had allocated Rs.15, 843 crore for the welfare of the Scheduled Castes and Schedule Tribes in the last fiscal, it had spent only Rs. 10,979 crore.
“These failures of the Congress government will help the candidates supported by the BJP in the Gram Panchayat polls,” he said.
The National Democratic Alliance government was pushing for the Land Acquisition Bill only to promote development in the country. Even here, the compensation being offered to the evacuees was four times the market rate. The Congress party is misleading the people on the Bill by portraying it as pro-industry, Mr. Yeddyurappa said.
Vasanth Salian, T.V. Hegde, Gitanjali Suvarna, Udaykumar Shetty, Naveen Shetty, BJP leaders, were present.
