Bengaluru: The BJP legislators led by party chief whip in the Legislative Assembly Sunil Kumar staged a dharna in front of Mahatma Gandhi statue at the Vidhana Soudha premises on Friday accusing Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy of neglecting the coastal districts in the state budget presented on Thursday. They wore black badges as a mark of protest.
Addressing the gathering, Mr Kumar alleged that the CM had totally neglected Udupi, Dakshina Kannada and Uttara Kannada districts and given lot of funds for old Mysuru districts. The Congress-JD(S) coalition government was practicing vengeance politics since the BJP won the maximum number of seats in the coast. Not a single new project had been announced in the budget for the development of coastal districts. The BJP will hold a protest both in the Assembly and Council against this injustice meted out to their region, he said.
When asked about Mr Kumaraswamy's assurance that all projects announced by his predecessor would be continued, he contended that even the Siddaramaiah government had completely neglected the coastal districts except develop ports in Karwar and Mangaluru. However, funds for port development had come from the BJP led NDA government at the Centre and the state had not released a single paise, he said.
After staging the dharna for some time, the agitating legislators took out a protest till Vidhana Soudha wearing black shawls and badges.
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