Siddaramaiah govt playing into hands of lobbyists, BJP

Flaying the Siddaramaiah government for its alleged "failure" on various fronts, opposition BJP leader in the Legislative Council K S Eshwarappa today accused it of playing into the hands of lobbyists.

"State government is in the grip of the education lobby, illegal sand lobby, illegal lottery and illegal mining lobby," Eshwarappa alleged speaking to reporters here. He said "The state government is playing into the hands of all kinds of lobbies, including the sugar lobby."

Citing examples of pending payment of dues to sugarcane farmers and the increase in fees for undergraduate engineering courses as the has government signed a consensual agreement with private engineering college managements on seat-sharing, he said, despite knowing that the decisions would affect the public, the government is helpless.

"This helplessness is because if the government takes strong decisions their pockets won't get filled," he added, charging that the Karnataka government is not people's government, but "lobbyist's government."

Hitting back at the state government for blaming the Centre for not getting enough funds for crops affected due to hailstorm, Eshwarappa said, "Agriculture Minister (state) has to collect data and meet the Centre, let them call us we will also go with them."

Welcoming the state government's decision to hand over to CBI the investigation into lottery scam, in which senior police officials are allegedly involved, he said the Chief Minister, who has the interim CID report and JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy, who claims to have information on influential people behind the scam "Should make the information they possess public."