JOIN US“Metro is my brainchild. I proposed the project in the mid-1990s. The Central government too has contributed for the project,” he said, while speaking to reporters here on Wednesday. However, Siddaramaiah said he will not attend the inaugural on Thursday since he has some prior engagement in Mysore.
Siddaramaiah accused Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda of “talking irresponsibly” on calling an emergency session of the Legislature to discuss the drought situation in the State.
He said he had just returned from a tour of drought-hit Bijapur, Chitradurga, Raichur, Tumkur, Chamarajanagar and Bellary districts, and that the situation was grim. While the revenue minister had not visited the affected areas, the official concerned too had failed to discharge their duties. The government has not appointed ministers to monitor the districts, he alleged.
Siddaramaiah said each district had incurred crop losses of Rs 200 crore to Rs 300 crore. The affected districts had been reeling under acute scarcity of fodder and water. The government had not taken measures to install rain gauges at the gram panchayats thus making it difficult to gather rainfall data.
The Congress leader demanded the government to come out with a White Paper on the additional capacity added to the power sector during the BJP regime.