Nothing 'fashionable' about loan waiver, says Siddaramaiah

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah scoffed at Union Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu for describing the state government’s farm loan waiver ‘a fashion’ and sought to know what term would he attribute to waiver of industrialists’ loans?

Siddaramaiah told reporters at the airport at Mandakalli near here on Thursday that, “The Centre has wri corporate Rs 6 lakh crore availed by industrialists as loans but Naidu has not made a mention of it.”

“Former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa has no moral right to speak about farm loan waiver. He should understand that the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government at the Centre had waived farm loans worth Rs 72,000 crore. Instead of wasting his energy here, Yeddyurappa should exert pressure on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to waive loans availed by farmers from nationalised banks,” he said.

“Farmers of Karnataka have availed a total loan amount of Rs 1.16 lakh crore from nationalised banks, cooperative banks and societies. Short-term loans amount to Rs 52,700 crore, of which the state’s share is Rs 10,736 crore. A decision has to be taken by the Union government about the loans advanced by nationalised banks,” he said.

On AHV resignation

Reacting to the resignation of former MP A H Vishwanath from the Congress on Friday, he said it (Congress) is a 132-year-old party where people come and go.
“We need not worry about such things,” he said.

Smart city

When asked about Bengaluru figuring in the Smart City project list as announced by the Centre, Siddaramaiah said it is fortunate that the Centre has at least woken up to this reality.
“The state government has to spend more funds than the Centre for the Smart City project but the Union government takes all the credit,” he said.

‘JD(S) is a casteist party’

Responding to former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy’s criticism that ‘Siddaramaiah is the most casteist politician’, Siddaramaiah said, “I have never indulged in caste politics throughout my political career. All the credit should go to the JD(S) for strengthening casteism in politics. The JD(S) is a casteist party. Only till I was in that party, it had some principles. Now, it has no principles. It is a family party. I do not take Kumaraswamy’s comments seriously,” he said.