BENGALURU: JDS state president HD Kumaraswamy on Sunday tore into the state Congress government and its leaders for rampant corruption and failure on all fronts and appealed to voters in five election-bound states, including Telangana, not to be misled by their false assurances.
“I request voters in five states not to be misled by false assurances by Congress leaders,” the former CM said while addressing a press conference in Bengaluru. “In Karnataka, they not only announced five guarantees, but many of their candidates also distributed (gift) cards to people to purchase material worth Rs 5000 after the election. Be careful, one or two days before voting they will announce this (gift card) guarantee to mislead you. They did the same in Karnataka to come to power and want to expand it to the entire country,” he said.
Taking a dig at CM Siddaramaiah, Kumaraswamy said they promised to provide 200 units of free power but pushed Karnataka into darkness and now they are talking about giving five hours of uninterrupted power to farmers in Telangana, the state that gives 24 hours of power to farmers. Congress leaders are talking about filing 2 lakh government jobs in Telangana, but they have not been able to fill 2.5 lakh jobs in Karnataka, he said.
The Congress leaders are talking about the Shakti scheme (free travel for women in state transport corporation buses), but there is a shortage of buses and staff to maintain the fleet, and many women, including CM’s home district Mysuru, have not received money under the “Gruha Laxmi” scheme, he said and added that and there is a severe staff shortage in many departments, including Agriculture department.
He also slammed the Siddaramaiah government for stopping the Rs 4000 additional amount that was given to farmers along with Rs 6,000 from the PM Kisan Samman scheme. It was started during the BJP government in the state and stopped by the Siddaramaiah government, but now they are talking about giving financial assistance to farmers in Telangana, which is the first state in the country to give Rs 10,000
to farmers under the Raita Bandu scheme, he said.
The JDS leader accused the Congress central leadership of setting targets for all ministers to collect money for elections in other states. The former CM said there is no question of the regional party merging with BJP and they have retained their identity. “ We are part of NDA,” he said. ‘Rs 1.9 crore for imported furniture’
Kumaraswamy said a minister got Rs 1.9 crore worth of furniture imported for the CM’s official residence. He said as per his information it was not government money, but a minister got it. “It is an updated version of the Hublot watch,” he said referring to the controversy over gifting of an expensive watch to Siddaramaiah during his previous tenure as CM.
