Shettar accuses Cong of 'political greed'

BJP floor leader in the Assembly Jagadish Shettar on Tuesday accused the ruling Congress of indulging in “political greed” by remaining silent on continuing popular programmes of the previous regime.

Participating in the discussions on the revised budget for 2013-14, Shettar pointed out that the budget document made no mention about programmes like Bhagyalakshmi, Suvarna Grama, creation of new taluks and provision of free bicycles to school students.

When Chief Minister Siddaramaiah intervened and said that there was no need to mention ongoing programmes in the budget, Shettar sought to know the budgetary allocations earmarked for these programmes.

“Several of these programmes are popular with the people and politics should not come in the way of the benefits reaching the needy,” he said.

The government has stalled the formation of 44 new taluks announced by the previous regime, despite it being a long-standing demand of the people, he pointed out.

Shettar accused Siddaramaiah of trying to mislead people by alleging that the previous BJP governments did not maintain financial discipline.

The BJP governments in the last five years had complied with all the rules under the Karnataka Fiscal Responsibility Act, the former chief minister said.

Siddaramaiah has blamed the previous BJP government for borrowing more and said borrowing money will lead to indiscipline. However, the chief minister, in the revised budget, has said Rs 22,396 crore will be borrowed this fiscal, which is Rs 629 crore more than what Shettar had estimated to borrow for the year in his budget presented in February this year.

Siddaramaiah's budget is full of contradictions. He has contradicted his own statements. While he has accused the BJP government of mismanagement in his budget speech, the medium term fiscal plan says the finances are sound, Shettar said.

He demanded that the government should come out with a status report on the Re one per kg of rice scheme and warned the government against misuse of the scheme.