BENGALURU: In a veiled attack on BJP leaders, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said some people are in the habit of smelling a rat in all developmental projects.
Speaking at the release of 'Vision 2025', a document laying the road-map for next seven years here on Saturday, he said it had become a habit for such people to suspect corruption in any developmental scheme launched by his government. This could be due to their involvement in corruption. It was not right for anyone to raise the bogey of corruption without any facts and figures. They did not achieve anything during their tenure but now were sensing corruption in any new project launched by the government.
He said Bengaluru city, which once was spread around 220 sq km, had now increased to 820 sq km, after inclusion of 110 villages into Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike limits and merger of several local bodies into it. It was a herculean task for the government to provide infrastructure to all those new areas. However, his government had started providing basic amenities like drinking water and UGD in those areas.
The vision 2025 document was drawn up by a team of dedicated officers led by senior IAS officer Renuka Chidambaram after visiting all 30 districts and holding consultation with all stake holders. Last year, Bengaluru was declared the most 'dynamic city' in the world by the World Economic Forum in recognition of rapid growth in all sectors. In fact, Bengaluru was now known as a vibrant city and attracting a lot of investments in last five years. “We are confident of coming back to power in Karnataka and we are going to implement all recommendations made by the vision 2025 group in the coming days,” he added.
Mr Siddaramaiah said he had rich experience after having worked under five chief ministers-Mr Ramakrishna Hegde, Mr S R Bommai, Mr H D Deve Gowda, Mr J H Patel and Mr N Dharm Singh. Besides, he was the finance minister since 1994.
According to him, no political party in the past had implemented its poll promises. But, it was the Congress which fulfilled all its 165 promises made to people in its election manifesto during 2013 Assembly elections.
The CM said his government implemented 'Anna Bhagya' scheme effectively since 2013 to make Karnataka 'hunger-free'. Though this programme was launched by the previous Congress led UPA Government under food security scheme, Karnataka had been distributing seven kg rice to every citizen Below Poverty Line (BPL). During his childhood, eating rice was considered as luxury and his neighbors used to go to houses of well-off families to borrow rice to cook for sick family members. To stop this, he decided to provide food to all needy people free of cost. Similarly, several welfare programs had been launched to help poor and downtrodden, he added.
