Govt in 'shavasana', chides Siddu

“The Yeddyurappa Government has completely failed in tackling the situation. It has, time and again, shown how inexperienced it is in administration,” he said.
Addressing mediapersons before sitting on a dharna at Gandhi Square in the City, Siddaramaiah said any ‘responsible’ Government would have called off the ‘baithak’ and rushed to the rain-hit areas. “Yeddyurappa says the respective ministers were let off early to attend to the emergencies. The ministers are yet to reach the affected areas. I wonder what’s stopping them,” he said.

Only Rs 150 crore
The Central government had released about Rs 274 crore under National Calamity Contingency Fund in two installments. However, the State government has released only Rs 150 crore as compensation. “What happened to the rest of the money?,” he questioned.

Criticising the government for not effectively using National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), Siddaramaiah said the State had used only Rs 1,100 crore while states like Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh had utilised Rs 4,000 crore and Rs 3,000 crore respectively.

“The Centre has set aside Rs 39,000 crore for this purpose, but Karnataka has lagged behind in utilising this,” Siddaramaiah said.
Further, he said the developmental works would be most hit since the chief minister had admitted that this year, the State would be short of Rs 10,000 crore in terms of tax collection.

“The BJP is determined to raise loans from outside, putting the fiscal health of the State in trouble. This will certainly hit the developmental works,” he added.
DH News Service