Former Karnataka Chief Minister and senior BJP leader B.S. Yediyurappa addressing the media in Hyderabad on Wednesday.
| Photo Credit: ANI
Telangana BJP fielded former Karnataka Chief Minister B.S.Yediyurappa, on Wednesday, where he urged Telangana people not be misled by the “six guarantees” of the Congress party, charging that the Congress government has utterly failed to implement the five guarantees in that State after coming to power.
“The Congress is following the Karnataka model here but the government there has cheated the people, unable to implement what it had guaranteed in the run-up to the polls. I appeal to the people of Telangana not to get hoodwinked by empty promises,” he said.
Stating that he was going to give a glimpse of the manner in which the Karnataka government has gone back on the promises, the BJP leader claimed that the guarantee of providing ₹3,000 monthly allowance for the unemployed and ₹1,500 for diploma holders shows no sign of it seeing the light of the day.
Gruhalakshmi — the scheme offering ₹2,000 to women below poverty line families for which 1.28 crore had registered after it was launched with much fanfare — saw just ₹2,300 crore being disbursed out of the ₹9,280 crore assured. People are complaining that money has not be transferred to their accounts whereas the government has been claiming a technical glitch due to Aadhaar linking with the bank accounts, he added.
Similarly, Shakti, which promised free bus travel to 84 lakh women, saw 18 crore women availing the scheme but the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation is left with ₹2,250 crore dues with only ₹140 crore only realised. The number of buses has been reduced from 24,352 to 19,200 after the scheme was implemented, while there is no bus service for rural areas, he claimed.
Mr.Yediyurappa charged that instead of providing free power for up to 200 units for all domestic consumers, after coming to power, the Congress government in Karnataka put conditions. Only 74.8 lakh had received zero bill and when the requirement was for ₹84,000 crore, only ₹411 crore has been released, he added.
The free 10-kg rice to 1.28 crore BPL families too has been a non-starter with the government blaming the Centre for being unable to procure rice and has now changed plans to disburse money. The five guarantees are expected to cost ₹52,000 crore but only ₹5,000 crore has been realised, he added.
Kishan defends FM
In a separate press conference, Telangana BJP president and Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy has defended Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s comments on meters for agriculture pump-sets stating that “she spoke facts”. He also hastened to state that free power will continue to be provided to agriculture if the party is elected to power.
“The Centre has never asked the government to fix meters to pump-sets. Telangana Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao is lying and unnecessarily calling her names. She only spoke of accountability on power being used since the distribution and generation companies have become bankrupt and farmers are being blamed for power consumption,” he claimed.
‘Arrest Akbaruddin’
Later, Rajya Sabha MP K. Laxman demanded that AIMIM MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi be arrested and a complaint be filed for preventing the police from enforcing the election code of conduct by asking him to cut short his speech at a public meeting in Chandrayanagutta.
“Does the rule of law does not work in Majlis strongholds? Is the government sleeping and the police so helpless? The Majlis leaders are openly promising that power bills need not be paid in their areas. They are challenging that the government writ does not run in their areas. Why is the government silent? People should take note of this,” he said.
