State losing industries, CM arrogant, says Yeddyurappa

BJP leader B S Yeddyurappa on Monday said the State has lost its sheen as an investment destination due to the lackadaisical attitude of the Siddaramaiah government.

In an interaction with the media, the former chief minister said a number of big companies, which wanted to set up units in the State, have backed out and chosen neighbouring states like Andhra Pradesh. The State seemed to have closed its doors to new industries.

Two-wheeler manufacturer Hero MotoCorp, which had planned to set up a plant in Dharwad, shifted to Andhra Pradesh. Asian Paints and e-commerce giant Amazon too were planning to shift shop, he added.

“Siddaramaiah is the most arrogant chief minister I have seen. He does not listen to the opposition or anyone. He is acting like the party high command. We have to hit him with greater force and take things to logical end”, Yeddyurappa said and claimed that he had organised two global investment meets, leading to creation of about 18 lakh employment opportunities when he was the chief minister.

Yeddyurappa said Siddaramaiah should have accepted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s offer that he accompany the Indian delegation to China. “Siddaramaiah gave lame excuses and declined the offer. This shows he has more political mal intention than concern for development of the state”, Yeddyurappa charged. The BJP leader said the amendments brought to the controversial land acquisition Act by the NDA government were not anti-farmer. “I have studied the amendments in detail and it has no provisions that will harm the interest of farmers”, he said.

He accused Siddaramaiah government of failing to implement budgetary programmes meant for the benefit of the poor and backward classes and read out statistics to highlight poor performance of various departments.

The government has discontinued a lake rejuvenation programme that was being implemented in all Assembly constituencies. Though it had promised to develop 20 km road in all the constituencies, even the tender process is not complete yet, he said.
He, however, complemented Siddaramaiah’s pet scheme Anna Bhagya (free rice scheme) and said it should be extended across the country.

Former chief minister admitted that he had remained politically inactive for the last one year and said henceforth he would strive to bring the BJP back to power in the state.
He agreed  “he had not done much” both at the Centre or the state after rejoining the BJP and getting elected as Member of Parliament from Shivamogga Lok Sabha constituency last year.

He, however, did not divulge the reasons as to why he had remained inactive.He said it was too early to decide on the leadership issue and all the leaders will work as a team.
‘Will be back in action’

To a query on whether he had lost the “fire” in him, the former chief minister said, “You will soon see the ‘old’ Yeddyurappa back in action”.