Pic: Spoorthi Ullal

Daijiworld Media Network – Mangaluru (DV)

Mangaluru, Apr 22: AICC spokesperson Charan Singh Sapra on Saturday April 22 slammed the state government led by the BJP over its unfulfilled promises and said that the party was sinking ship in the state.

Addressing media, Sapra said, “The BJP government is a sinking ship in the state. People are expecting change. The BJP's polarisation politics will not work this time. People will give a clear mandate.

“Unscheduled power cuts continue to plague all major cities of Karnataka despite BESCOM's, HESCOM's, CESCOM GESCOM's, and MESCOM's assurance of an uninterrupted power supply. What happened to the BJP government’s promise to provide every household with electricity connection and 24x7 access to electricity under the flagship Saubhagya scheme?

“What happened to the promise to waive the rent on electric meters for all domestic connections and to ensure that all village streets are lit by street lights using LED Bulbs?

“What happened to the promise for 3 phase power supply for 10 hours for farmers to operate their pump sets? What happened to the promise of doubling the production of electricity capacity of the state to 20,000 MWs and increase the state's solar power production capacity by 4,000 MWs? What is the status of establishing a mega solar power complex in the state?

“Karnataka installed capacity of power increased by 97% during Congress' tenure from 2013-2018, but under the BJP, it progressed only by a meagre 9%. Availability of power in Karnataka increased by 18.68% during Congress' tenure from 2013-2018, but under the BJP, it increased only by 1% in 2018-22.

“Per capita, the availability of power in Karnataka increased by 16.62% during Congress' tenure from 2013-18. But under the BJP, it increased by only 1% in 2018-22. The supply of power saw an exponential increase of 23.5% during Congress' tenure and an absolute decline of 5.4% after the BJP came to power,” he said.

Listing the achievements of the Siddaramaiah-led government, Sapra said, “Uninterrupted power supply 184 transformer banks and 143 transformer repair centres were established to provide an uninterrupted power supply. For redressal of the grievances of the consumers, 168 Grahakara Salaha Samithis were formed. As promised in the 2013 manifesto, 100% subsidy was provided to gram panchayats to shift from the old system to solar power run street lights.

“The Surya Raitha Scheme was a decentralized solar generation programme brought to encourage farmers to generate solar power in their lands for their pump sets and sell the excess power to the ESCOMS. A 97.89-megawatt capacity power generation scheme was established as a pilot project under the Surya Raitha Scheme.

“The Siddaramaiah-led Congress government under DK Shivakumar as power minister established one of the world's largest solar parks at Pavagada in the Tumakuru district. It is spread over 13,000 acres and 5 villages and aims to generate 2,000 MW,” he said.

Congress leaders A C Vinayaraj and Niraj Pal were present.