From Our Special Correspondent

Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, Jan 10: With a view to enthuse the Congress rank and file, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has announced proposals to constitute Guarantee Implementation Panels at the state, district and taluk levels with payment of monthly honoraria and sitting fees.

Addressing a meeting of all district Congress committee presidents and district in-charge ministers at the Congress Bhavan in the KPCC office on Wednesday, he said there will be a State-level panel with a chairman, who will be granted cabinet rank, and five vice-presidents with ministers of state rank besides 31 members.

While the chairman will be provided a monthly honorarium of Rs 50,000 and an office in Vidhana Soudha, all the members will be entitled for sitting fees. "There will be a district-level committee with a chairman and vice-chairman and 21 members. Guarantee implementation committees will also be constituted in all the 224 assembly constituencies in the State with a chairman and 11 members each," he said.

The chief minister, however, did not spell out the details of the honorarium for State panel’s vice-presidents, the district guarantee implementation committee president and vice-president or that of taluk-level panels besides those at the Assembly constituency level.

Siddaramaiah said the honorarium and sitting fees and other perquisites to the different panels will be paid through the State exchequer because they are monitoring the implementation of the 5 guarantees rolled out by the government to implement the pre-poll promises.

The chief minister, however, indicated that the panels would cost an expenditure of Rs 16 crore, which is a small amount for a government. The committees are being formed to monitor the implementation and give befitting replies to the opposition for all their false propaganda, he said.

'Must win at least 26 seats’

Siddaramaiah said the Congress government is encouraged by the tremendous public response to the guarantees, which have benefitted a large number of people, and is not worried about the attacks and criticism from the opposition.

Setting a target for winning all the 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, the chief minister said: "We must win at least 26 seats and the party rank and file must work together to achieve the goal.’’

"The pulse of the people is in favour of the Congress party,’’ he said and asked all partymen to work unitedly with dedication.

The chief minister said the BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah as well as BJP President J P Nadda had ridiculed the Congress party’s pre-election guarantees and had proclaimed that it will push Karnataka to bankruptcy.

"We have rolled out all the five guarantees and the people are happy,’’ he said lashing out at BJP for now ‘’shamelessly talking about Modi guarantee.’’

Siddaramaiah said the Congress workers must speak out and tell the people about the BJP hollowness. "The guarantees of Shakti, Anna Bhagya, Gruha Jyothi, Gruha Lakshmi and Yuva Nidhi have helped people and enabled their empowerment. If the government was bankrupt, can the guarantees be implemented?’’ he asked.

He also said that all the legislators have been directed to ensure that welfare and developmental schemes of Rs 25 crore must be completed in all constituencies by the end of March.

The chief minister ridiculed the BJP leaders, including opposition leader R Ashoka, for taking a delegation to meet Governor Thaawar Chand Gehlot blaming the state government for not releasing funds to help the farmers to tide over the drought situation.

"People elected 25 BJP MPs from the State to take up the task. But, what are they doing? The state government submitted repeated memoranda to the Centre and personally met Modi and Shah seeking immediate release of funds. Why is the Modi government silent and why do the BJP leaders and its 25 MPs not speak? They have no courage to talk to the prime minister and now going to the governor,’’ he thundered.

He blamed the Modi government for its step motherly treatment towards Karnataka and the gross injustice in the devolution of funds. "The detailed list of all the injustices will be sent to all MLAs and they must speak out to inform the people. It is time to teach a lesson to BJP for insulting Kannadigas," he said.

AICC general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala, KPCC president and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, former chief ministers M Veerappa Moily and Jagadish Shettar, Ministers Dr G Parameshwara, H K Patil, N Cheluvarayaswamy and senior Congress leader B K Hariprasad were among the leaders who attended the meeting.