PM Modi targets Siddaramaiah as ‘neck-deep in graft’

Bengaluru: Sounding the clarion call for the BJP ahead of the Karnataka Assembly elections due in May this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday launched  a full-fledged attack on the Siddaramaiah government, saying it was “neck-deep in corruption” and dubbed it a “10 per cent commission” government.

The countdown for the downfall of the Congress government has begun, the PM said, addressing over one lakh BJP workers at the concluding function of the party’s 85-day statewide Parivar-thana Yatra at the Palace Grounds here, and added that the Siddaramaiah government “was at the exit gate”.

“Without paying 10 per cent commission, no work can taken place in the Congress government,” Mr Modi remarked. Starting and ending his speech in Kannada, the PM recalled some great personalities of Karnataka, starting from Nada Prabhu Kempegowda, and said: “The BJP will definitely ensure Congress-mukt Karnataka, we don’t want the Congress culture to exist in the nation. Once our government comes to power, the implementation of development projects will happen faster in coordination with the Centre.”

Listing the release of Central funds to Karnataka over the past four years, he said the state government had not implemented the projects effectively and made the people suffer. After the BJP-led NDA came to power in 2014, in Karnataka, more than 1.16 crore Jan Dhan account had been opened, and the Mudra Bank has financed loans to one crore people and given gas connections to 1.85 lakh households, he noted. “The previous Congress-led UPA government gave Rs 73,000 crores to Karnataka when it was in power, however after we assumed power, we have released over Rs 2 lakh crore as the state share to Karnataka,” he said, and blamed the Congress government for failing to implement the Fasal Bhima Yojana, Swachchh Bharat Abhiyan and other Centrally-sponsored schemes in Karnataka.

“We have provided drinking water connections to four crore people in the country, in Karnataka seven lakh people have got the connections. In Karnataka, projects worth `83,000 crores have been taken up including infrastructures projects. As many as 33 railway projects have been taken up in the state. When the UPA was in power, they constructed 950 km of national highways in the state, after we came to power, we completed 1,600 km,” Mr Modi explained.

Referring to farmers’ distress in Karnataka, the PM blamed the Congress government for not taking any steps to provide a better life to farmers. “In the Union Budget, we have announced an enhanced minimum support price to the farming sector, 1.5 times more than the cost of production of the produce. If B.S. Yeddyurappa becomes CM,  he will provide Rs 1 lakh crores for irrigation projects and the Centre will provide a helping hand to him to implement the projects. He will also effectively implement Centrally-sponsored schemes for the farming sector, including the increased MSP for farmers,” Mr Modi said.

Dwelling on initiatives for small and medium scale enterprises in the Budget, he said the Centre has reduced corporate tax for the sector from 30 per cent to 25 per cent and added that this would help create more than three crore new jobs.