BENGALURU: Sarcasm marked leader of Opposition B S Yeddyurappa’s reaction to budget proposals of Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy with the BJP leader dubbing it as an exercise by “Anna-Thamma” (brothers Mr Kumaraswamy and Mr Revanna) merely to strengthen their hold over Ramanagar and Hassan districts respectively.
Mr Yeddyurappa charged that most of the schemes announced by Mr Kumaraswamy would benefit people of these two districts while the rest of his budget speech was full of contradictions. He mocked at Mr Kumaraswamy for stating one and executing another decision. While the CM had assured that all schemes launched by the previous government headed by Mr Siddaramaiah would continue, lack of commitment and vision on the part of the Chief Minister was evident as the quantity of rice under ‘Anna bhagya’ scheme was reduced from seven to five kg, thus rendering gross injustice to beneficiaries of the scheme living below the poverty line (BPL).
While Congress president Rahul Gandhi was leading protests against the BJP-led NDA government in New Delhi to scale down the prices of fuel, the budget sought to hike the prices through a two per cent cess as part of mobilization of additional resources, BSY said.
He added that such proposals would hit the poor and middle class most because they commute long distances. It would also force them to "cough up more money for essential commodities as any increase in prices of fuel would have a cascading effect on various markets". Mr Yeddyurappa also criticized the Chief Minister for proposing a hike in tariff of electricity and for neglecting minorities by denying them benefits from any new scheme.
