From our special correspondent

Daijiworld media network

Kalaburgi, Aug 5: Launching the Congress government’s most ambitious Gruhajyothi scheme offering free power up to 200 units to all domestic electricity consumers, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday challenged the BJP to implement the government’s Guarantee schemes to help the poor and middle classes in all States throughout the country.

Addressing a massive function to launch the Gruhajyothi scheme in the presence of Congress national president Mallikarjuna Kharge and other State ministers in Kalaburgi, Siddaramaiah said the government will implement all its 5 Guarantees promised in the run-up to the Assembly polls.

"There is no need to have any doubts or misgivings on the guarantees," he said, referring to the needless and politically motivated tirade by the opposition parties, especially the BJP, and said no less a person than Prime Minister Narendra Modi had warned that Karnataka would become bankrupt if the Congress Guarantees are implemented.

The Chief Minister said Karnataka has implemented the guarantees and made budgetary allocations. "The State has not become bankrupt and is financially stable," he said, accusing the BJP of looting the wealth of the State through its rampant corruption, price rise, and making life miserable for the poor and middle classes due to inflation and spiraling unemployment.

Siddaramaiah said the the only contribution of BJP was renaming the region as Kalyana Karnataka when it was in power. "It is former BJP chief ministers B S Yediyurappa and Basavaraj Bommai and the Narendra Modi regime which are responsible for plunging the State into backwardness," he said, asserting that the Congress party has always kept its promises and walked the talk.

"Has the Hyderabad Karnataka region, with the grandiose name of Kalyana Karnataka given by BJP regimes in the past, seen any tangible developmental programmes?" he said, attacking the BJP of leveling baseless allegations on various issues out of spite and jealousy.

The Chief Minister said the Modi regime has done nothing to uplift the poor, middle classes, and the minorities except raising religious and caste issues to polarize the people.

He accused the Yediyurappa regime of reducing the free distribution of rice from 7 kgs to 4 kgs, and the Modi regime of looting money from the people by raising prices of petroleum products, cooking gas cylinders, even when international crude prices were falling, and is responsible for the hefty increase in prices of all essential commodities.

Siddaramaiah said the BJP never wanted the development of northern Karnataka, and BJP’ tallest leader L K Advani had declared that Hyderabad Karnataka region cannot be accorded special status under Article 371(J), and it is the Manmohan Singh government under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, which took the bold decision. "Our leaders Mallikarjuna Kharge and former Chief Minister Dharam Singh were mainly responsible for convincing the Centre on the need to introduce Article 371(J) because of their willpower," he said.

While the previous Congress government had constructed 14.42 lakh houses, including 99,600 houses in Kalyana Karnataka alone, the previous BJP government had constructed barely 8 lakh houses in the past five years, with just 19,000 houses in Kalyana Karnataka, he said.

He declared that the Congress government would implement all its 76 poll promises along with the guarantees in the next five years without sacrificing the needs of the State's development. "This is our guarantee. We walk the talk," he asserted.

The Chief Minister said the women are happy with the implementation of the Shakti guarantee providing free travel to all women and girls from the State in all government buses.

Over 30 crore women have utilized the Shakti benefit since its launch on June 11, and as many as 50 lakh women are availing the free bus travel facility, he said, announcing that 3.14 crore people will benefit from the Gruhajyothi scheme. A total of 1.41 crore people have already registered themselves in the scheme which commences from July 1.

Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, AICC President Mallikarjuna Kharge, Energy Minister K J George, ministers Priyank Kharge, Iswar Khandre, and other legislators were present.