BJP State unit president Pralhad Joshi said here on Sunday that the Congress government had failed on all fronts. He alleged that the government was anti-people, anti-poor and was not concerned about development.
Mr. Joshi was speaking at a function to campaign for the party candidate Prakash Khandre for the byelections to the Bidar Assembly constituency.
“The State government is so inefficient that it is not able to spend the grants released by the Centre, let alone spend its own money,” he said. Mr. Joshi complained that the government was sitting on the Rs. 1,500 crore released as crop compensation, without releasing it to farmers properly. Also, it had not released its share of the compensation to farmers, he alleged.
Mr. Joshi alleged that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was trying to win the trust of MLAs and other Congress leaders by granting liquor licences to their followers. This would push the State into disarray as small villages and residential areas in cities would have easy access to liquor. “Women will curse the Chief Minister for this move,” he said.
Mr. Joshi said that the BJP’s development agenda was forcing the Congress to focus on issues like cleanliness, health and hygiene. The Congress never thought of constructing toilets or school compounds in its 60-year rule in the country. “Now that Prime Minister Narendra Modi introduced schemes like Swachch Bharat and school development programmes, the Congress is including such things in their manifesto,” he said.
Mr. Joshi alleged that the United Progressive Alliance government did not support the Global Investors’ Meet when the BJP government organised it three years ago. But, the National Democratic Alliance government helped the State government when it organised Invest Karnataka and sent senior Union Ministers for the function, Mr. Joshi added.
