From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
Bengaluru, Feb 5: Terming BJP’s ‘Modi Guarantee’ as a ‘hollow and false promise’, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday asked the people not to be fooled by the BJP’s claims.
Speaking after dedicating 100 new designed luxury ‘Ashwamedha classic’ buses of KSRTC in front of Vidhana Soudha, he charged the BJP of uttering falsehood and believing that repeating the lies many times would make people believe such promises.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi had claimed that Karnataka will be bankrupt if the Congress party’s pre-poll guarantees were to be implemented. But Modi’s claims have fallen flat eight months after the implementation of the guarantees. Women of all castes and religions and poor are benefitted by the Shakti guarantee, which is implemented in a secular and non-partisan manner,’’ he said.
The Chief Minister said the Prime Minister and BJP have now started the new falsehood of Modi Guarantee. “If they were so allergic to guarantees, why speak of Modi Guarantee on the eve of the elections. Why BJP has not implemented such pro-poor welfare measures,’’ he said Modi has not done anything matching the Congress Guarantees during the last 10 years of his rule.
Siddaramaiah lashed out at Modi for not doing anything on his promise of bringing back all the black money stashed abroad and crediting Rs 15 lakh each in all citizen’s bank account, creating 2 crore jobs annually or doubling the income of farmers during the last 10 years.
“After his failure to act on any of his promises in the last 10 years, the Prime Minister has now come out with Modi Guarantee,’’ he said urging the people not to be fooled by such BJP gimmicks.
The Chief Minister 1.17 crore women are benefitted with Gruhalakshsmi crediting Rs 2000 each every month in the bank account of the woman head of the family, under Anna Bhagya the BPL family members are given 5 kgs of rice and cash for another 5 kgs, the government has spent Rs 4,530 crore on the Shakti free bus travel in government buses to women and the unemployed youth are paid cash compensation besides arrangement for skills development under Yuva Nidhi while Gruhajyothi is benefitting all domestic electricity consumers up to 200 units free supply.
“The Congress government’s five guarantees are providing financial benefit of Rs 4,000 to 5,000 every month and has improved the purchasing power of people, which boosts consumption and well-being of the poor. The State Government is helping 4.5 crore out of the State’s 6 crore people,’’ he said criticising the guarantees as ‘freebies’.
The Shakti guarantee has helped in empowering women and girls by helping 1.46 crore women and girls have travelled free of cost in government buses.
The Chief Minister said KSRTC is increasing its fleet of buses by 1000 buses this year, including the 100 dedicated on Monday. KSRTC had not purchased buses during the last 4 years and 3,800 buses were suspended during the Covid pandemic period. The Congress government is inducting 5,800 buses as safe and ease of travelling is the main objective, he said.
The insurance coverage for all employees State Transport Corporations has been enhanced to Rs 1 crore and the compensation payment to the staff for death while on duty has been enhanced from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 10 lakh.
Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, Transport Minister B Ramalinga Reddy, KSRTC Chairman Gopi Srinivas, MLC Nagaraj Yadav and others were present.