Mangalore: UPA should Stop Playing Politics - Ananth Kumar

Pics: Spoorthi Ullal / Ramesh Pandith
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore

Mangalore, Jun 2: BJP general secretary Ananth Kumar on Saturday June 2 criticised the central government for not helping Karnataka during drought and not giving enough funds to ease the situation.

He was addressing reporters at Sharada Vidyalaya where he addressed the teachers and urged them to vote for BJP candidates D H Shankaramurthy and Capt Ganesh Karnik in the upcoming MLC election.

"The central UPA government did not do enough for the state when drought had hit 124 taluks in 23 districts."

Training guns on Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, he said that both had visited the state to assess the drought situation and that the state had expected some help, but neither helped.

He said the UPA government should 'stop playing politics' and show concern towards the people.

"The state suffered a loss of Rs 6,000 crore due to the drought, and a request of Rs 1,500 crore was put before the centre by the state. The centre agreed to release Rs 280 crore, but in the end the state received only Rs 70 crore," he said.

He further alleged, "The state was in need of 3 lac metric tonnes of rice and 25,000 metric tonnes of flour, but the centre did not give even a quarter of it."

Karnataka housing board chairman G T Deve Gowda and BJP MLA Aiyanur Manjunath were present.