BJP ministers steal the show on Day 1

The Union government stole the show on Wednesday at Invest Karnataka - 2016 by making big announcements on implementing infrastructure projects in the State.

While Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley stressed on the need for working in the spirit of cooperative federalism, his Cabinet colleagues, Nitin Gadkari, Venkaiah Naidu and Ananth Kumar, made a number of big announcements for improving the infrastructure in the State.

The Union ministers made use of the platform to praise initiatives taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and called upon the State to join hands with the Centre for the country’s development. “We (Congress government in the State and the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre) may have political differences. But we are not enemies. We have to work together as a team to fill gaps that have remained unattended in the last 60 years,” he stated.

Jaitley further said poverty can be eliminated only by making India grow. A large number of people suffering in poverty will come up if the country grows faster.

Hence, the Centre and the State should compete and cooperate with each other in cooperative federalism. “We can never allow our federalism or our democracy to become an obstacle in the process of development,” he added.

Though almost all Karnataka ministers were present at the meet, only Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Industries Minister R V Deshpande spoke on the occasion.

The other speakers were select industry captains. Siddaramaiah said his government will do everything possible to enable seamless conduct of business with total transparency and speedy clearances. He expressed hope that the Union Finance Minister will allocate sufficient funds to Karnataka in the 2016-17 Budget.

Deshpande said the State government is committed to providing conducive policies, creating high quality infrastructure, consistent and transparent tax policies, responsive administration and globally comparable “ease of doing business” environment. Invest Karnataka has received a tremendous response from investors, both new and existing, he added.