Bengaluru, Nov 3 (IANS): Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday hit back at his predecessor B.S. Yediyurappa for his attack on the Congress government, terming his allegations "far from the truth".
Yediyurappa had slammed Siddaramaiah for criticising PM Narendra Modi and the Central government for step-motherly treatment to the state, and questioned the implementation of the Congress government's flagship schemes.
"The allegations against our government by former Chief Minister Yeddyurappa are far from the truth. It is not true that the Gruha Lakshmi scheme has not reached half of the women of the state, in fact 1.08 crore women of the state had successfully registered for the scheme in the month of October. Among these, only 9.44 lakh women were not credited with money due to reasons such as mismatch of beneficiary's Aadhaar number with the bank account, difference in applicant's name and address, etc. 88 per cent of the first month's installment has been credited to the account of the registered beneficiaries," Siddaramaiah said.
He also maintained that previous BJP government in the state, and the Centre are responsible for the hike in electricity rates in the state.
"Yediyurappa's statement that electricity rates have increased seems to be a criticism of their previous BJP government. KERC had presented a proposal to increase the rates in front of the previous BJP government in March, which was approved by the BJP government and on May 12 - the day before the election results - and KERC implemented the new rates retrospectively from April 1. The Union government implemented a new rule Electricity (Timely Recovery of Costs due to Change in Law) Rules in 2021. According to this rule, the Fuel and Power Purchase Cost Adjustment (FPPCA) rate should be levied on the consumers without being borne by the state governments. Accordingly, KERC, on March 13, 2023 when the BJP government was in power, decided to go ahead with this with effect from April 1, 2023. But since the Election Code of Conduct was in force in April, it started collecting the dues from May 12. Due to these two reasons the electricity rate has increased in the state which was clearly the doing of the previous state BJP government and the central BJP government," he said.
Siddaramaiah also dared Yediyurappa to take an all-party delegation to the Centre to demand drought relief, saying he was ready to go with him.
"216 out of 236 taluks have been declared drought-hit in the wake of severe drought in the state. A total crop loss of Rs 33,710 crore has been estimated, and Rs 17,901 crore compensation has been requested from the Centre. When the Centre’s drought study team arrived in the state, they were convinced about the drought situation, including green drought. Our ministers N. Chaluvarayaswamy, Priyank Kharge and Krishna Byre Gowda met the Agriculture Secretary of the Centre and informed them about the situation. Despite doing all this, neither a positive response nor a grant has come from the Union government. The Union government, which was supposed to release drought relief as per NDRF rules, is delaying it unnecessarily. As I told you that if you take an all-party delegation in this regard, I will come with you. I would like to state once again that it is not too late to take the all-party delegation to Delhi instead of going on a trip to study drought in the state," he said.