From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
Bengaluru, Jan 14: In a sharp attack against the Congress, chief minister Basavaraj Bommai has accused opposition party of playing caste politics to suit its narrow political gains.
Addressing the media persons near his residence in Bengaluru on Saturday, he said the people of Karnataka cannot be fooled by such gimmicks and teach a befitting lesson to the opposition party in the elections.
The chief minister attacked the Congress leaders for provoking emotional sentiments of the people by raising the reservation issue ahead of the elections and demanded to know why the Congress party did not do justice to all the communities when it was in power.
``We are in power and cannot take on the spot decisions. The government has to weigh all aspects and act as per law. The government is duty-bound to treat all communities equally and ensure that any community was not subjected to injustice,’’ he said asking Siddaramaiah to explain why his government did not settle the issue of reservation for the communities in 2016.
``Karnataka had congress government from 2016 to 2018 and Siddaramaiah was the Chief Miniter,’’ he said demanding to know how and why the Kantharaj Committee report was rejected.
Bommai said it is not correct for anybody to set deadlines and demand that reservation issue must be settled within a time-bound manner. He asked the Swamijis threatening to launch agitations if their demand on the quota issue is not settled by January 31 to find out from the Congress why it did not solve the issue when it was in power.
The chief minister said the government was committed to resolve the demands of Panchamasali Lingayats as well as Vokkaligas and also ensure that the other communities do not suffer any injustice. The government has to take all aspects into consideration, he said.
Lashing out at the Congress for its promise to supply 200 units of free power to all households if it comes to power, the chief minister said the previous government had put all the energy supply companies (ESCOMS) in a debt trap.
``The BJP government provided Rs 8000 crore to ESCOMs and enabled them to secure Rs 13,000 crore loans with government guarantee,’’ he said pointing out that the ESCOMs had survived because of this Rs 21,000 funding.
Bommai pointed out that the 200 units of free power to all households as promised by the Congress party would require more than Rs 9,000 crore. How will the government arrange this money? It has to come by slashing budget allocations to other items. No responsible political party would make such reckless and impractical promise, he said.
Promises to women in Budget
However, the chief minister said the state government will come out with special package for each household to help women to maintain households in the forthcoming State Budget.
``We will come out with special programmes for women and other sections in the budget,’’ he said indicating that the State budget was likely to be presented on February 17.
Later, the chief minister proceeded to Davangere to participate in Harajathra Mahotsav at Harihar. The Harajathra Mahotsav is being organised by the Veerashaiva Lingayat Panchamasali Jagadguru Pith in Harihar.