From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
Bengaluru, Apr 7: Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar has thanked Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for admitting the delay by the Centre in releasing drought relief funds to Karnataka after consistently levelling false charges against the State.
Campaigning for the Congress candidate D K Suresh, who is his brother, from the Bengaluru Rural constituency, he said the finance minister has now passed the blame to the Election Commission of India for the delay.
“What is the connection between releasing drought relief funds and Election Commission?” he asked and pointed out that there was no model code of conduct for four months after the State Government submitted its memoranda seeking Central drought relief funds.
"After sleeping over the memoranda submitted by the Congress government and repeatedly blaming the State for delay in submitting the drought relief memoranda, the Union Finance Minister is now blaming the poll panel. Does this mean that the Centre will decide only after June when the Lok Sabha elections will be over and model code of conduct ceases?" he asked.
Shivakumar attacked JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy for talking about Mekedatu project from Mandya and promising to get Centre’s approvals and wanted to know why he was silent when we first raised the issue.
“When the Congress party launched the padayatra demanding clearances for the Mekedatu project, he said Kumaraswamy had criticised the yatra as a ploy to eat chicken kebabs and mutton biriyani. Now that Kumaraswamy is contesting from Mandya with BJP support, he has started talking about it from Mandya after he feels the heat,” the KPCC chief said.
The deputy chief minister said the Congress government will solve the drinking water, traffic congestion and other problems and had implemented the guarantees promised during the assembly polls.
“When there was a strong pro-Modi wave in the State helping BJP to win 27 seats, including the independent supported by it, D K Suresh had won with a lead of 2.30 lakh. Now there is no pro-Modi wave and people are happy with Congress government’s guarantees. Suresh will win with even a bigger margin,” he predicted.