'Assembly election is Siddaramaiah vs Modi, Amit Shah'

District Congress Publicity Committee president Dhananjay Adpangaya said that the upcoming Assembly election is not between Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and B S Yeddyurappa or H D Kumaraswamy.

Instead, it is Siddaramaiah versus Narendra Modi and Amit Shah.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, he said that the banking system in the country has collapsed with the most non-performing assets (NPAs) in both the public sector banks and the private banks. Those who could not set right the scams that rocked the banking system are campaigning in Karnataka for the election. There is a need to create awareness on the banking frauds and the NPAs written off by the NDA government among the educated voters of Karnataka, said Adpangaya.

Frauds

Speaking further, the president said that a Rs 12,636-crore fraud was perpetrated by billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi. The Rotomac Pens' promoter has allegedly cheated a consortium of public sector banks of Rs 3,695 crore by defaulting on loans. In addition, Kanishka Gold has duped banks to the tune of Rs 824 crore.

He alleged that, in 2016-17, the government had written off Rs 57,000 crore NPAs and continued to write off Rs 87,683 crore in 2017-18. In 2016-17, the banks have recovered Rs 5,000 crore and Rs 8,680 crore in 2017-18. About 25,000-acre land, worth Rs 16,000 crore, has been confiscated by the government in the process of recovery of bad loans.

Constituted

As a part of preparations for the Assembly elections, Adpangaya said that publicity committees have been constituted at the district-level and also in Assembly constituencies. Block-level publicity committee presidents have been elected. In addition, the DCC Publicity Committee has two conveners, 20 vice presidents and 11 general secretaries.