Administrative failure reason for price rise: Ananthkumar

Addressing a press conference at the BJP Office here on Sunday, he said that the UPA government at the Centre has failed utterly in controlling the inflation. “BJP government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee was successful in controlling the prices of commodities. Inflation was not at all discussed in the parliament when BJP was in power,” he added. Terming the economic policies of the UPA government incompetent, Ananthkumar said, “the government led by noted Economists including Manmohan Singh, Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Pranab Mukherjee has become a government with disastrous economic policies.”

“While the government exports sugar at Rs 16 per kilogram, the same government imports it from foreign countries at Rs 36. Similarly, while rice is being exported at Rs 12 per kilogram, the same commodity is being imported at Rs 26 per kilogram.”

“Its quite serious but ridiculous fact that both vessels carrying commodities move in opposite direction on the sea at a time,” Ananthkumar said and demanded that a Joint Parliament Committee should be formed to find out fact with regard to the irregularities in Indian Exim Policies.

Talking about the Dantewada naxal attack, Ananthkumar said that the incident took place because of the soft stand of UPA government towards the naxal issue.
Further, the UPA government had dissolved the Inter-State Co-ordination Committee, which was formed to tackle the naxal menace across the nation, he pointed out.

Parliament chalo on April 21

Ananthkumar said that lakhs of BJP workers will take part in the Parliament chalo and gherao protest against the price rise, to be held on April 21. About 15,000 workers from Karnataka will take part in the protest. While a total of 10 crore signatures will be collected through a campaign, about one crore people will sign on it from the State, he added.

District-in-Charge Minister J Krishna Palemar, MLC Capt Ganesh Karnik, MLA N Yogish Bhat, Coastal Karnataka Development Authority Chairman B Nagaraj Shetty, BJP District President Padmanabha Kottari and Mangalore City Unit President Shrikar Prabhu were present.

Ananthkumar challenges Congress

BJP General Secretary Ananthkumar challenged Union Ministers and Congress leaders from Karnataka to ensure the allotted 1,543 MW of power supply from the Central grid. Addressing reporters, he challenged them to take initiative for the proper supply of power from the central grid instead of blaming the State government for power cuts. The State is reeling under power crisis since National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) and the Power Marketing Corporation (PMC) do not supply Karnataka’s share and as a result, the State loses a total of 800 MW power, he explained.

The Gujarath government had agreed to supply 450 MW power to State. However, as the power corridor between Western and Southern grids is being utilised by the Tamilnadu governement, the proposal was not materialised, Ananthkumar said. A Dedicated Power Plant will be set up at Bidadi to produce 1,400 MW power exclusively for Bangalore, since the City requires about 4,000 MW power, he added.