Bengaluru: Sounding the clarion call for the BJP ahead of the Karnataka Assembly polls due in May this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday launched a full-fledged attack on the Siddaramaiah government saying it was neck-deep in corruption and dubbed it as a '10 per cent commission' government.
The countdown has begun for the downfall of the Congress government, said the PM while addressing over a lakh BJP workers at the concluding function of the party's 85-day Parivarthana Yatra at Palace Grounds here and added that the Siddaramaiah government 'was at the exit gate.'
“Without paying ten percent commission, no work can take place in the Congress government,” Mr Modi remarked. Starting and ending his speech in Kannada, the PM recalled great personalities of Karnataka starting from Nada Prabhu Kempegowda and said, “The BJP will definitely ensure Congress Mukt Karnataka, we do not want the Congress culture to exist in the nation. Once our government comes to power, the implementation of developmental projects will happen faster in co-ordination with the Centre.”
Listing out the release of Central funds to Karnataka in the last four years, he said the state government did not implement projects effectively and made people suffer. After the BJP-led NDA came to power in 2014, in Karnataka, more than 1.16 crore Jan Dhan account have been opened, the Mudra Bank has financed loans to one crore people and given gas connections to 1.85 lakh households. “The previous Congress-led UPA government gave Rs 73,000 crore to Karnataka when it was in power, however after we assumed power, we have released over Rs 2 lakh crore as the state share to Karnataka,” he said.
He blamed the Congress government for failing to implement Fasal Bhima Yojana, Swachh Bharat Yojana and other central schemes in Karnataka.
“We have provided water connections to 4 crore people in the country, in Karnataka, 7 lakh people have got the connections. In Karnataka, projects worth Rs 83,000 crore have been taken up including infrastructure. As many as 33 railway projects have been taken up in the state. When the UPA was in power, it constructed 950 km of national highways in the state, after we came to power, we completed 1,600 km”, Mr Modi said.
Referring to farmer distress in Karnataka, he blamed the Congress government for not taking any steps to provide a better life to farmers. “In the Union Budget, we have announced an enhanced minimum support price to farming sector, 1.5 times more than the cost of production of the produce. If Yeddyurappa becomes CM, he will provide Rs 1 lakh crore for irrigation projects and the Centre will provide a helping hand to him to implement them. He will effectively implement centrally sponsored schemes for the farming sector,” he said.
Dwelling on initiatives for Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSME) in the budget, he said the Centre has reduced corporate tax for the sector from 30 percent to 25 percent and added that it would help create more than 3 crore new jobs.
