Bengaluru, Feb 18 (IANS): The Karnataka BJP slammed Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday for allegedly blocking funds allotted for one of the most backward communities.
State BJP President B. Y. Vijayendra, claimed the grant allocated for the Vishwagaaniga Community Trust of the highly backward Gaaniga community has been withheld.
He said Siddaramaiah remembers backward classes for votes but has not done anything for their welfare.
The most backward Kayaka communities continue to be neglected and now the backward classes are realising the harsh reality, the BJP leader claimed.
Backward Classes Welfare Minister Shivaraj Tangadagi has "blocked" the funds meant for the development of the Vishwagaaniga Community Trust of the Taileshwara Gaaniga society, thereby causing distress to the community, he claimed and said that this "exposes" the true face of the Congress government, which pretends to stand for social justice but does the opposite.
"Paramapujya Poornanandapuri Swamiji, in his previous life, served as a former minister and worked for four decades to uplift backward communities. Now, having renounced everything and taken up Sannyasa, he has dedicated himself to the educational and industrial development of the Gaaniga community and is striving to develop the Shri Math," Vijayendra said.
He slammed the state government for "ignoring" the plea of Swamiji and "withholding" the funds it had already promised.
Later, he appealed to the government to immediately release the withheld funds.
Swamiji, earlier known as B.J. Puttaswamy, served as former Minister and Deputy Chairman of the Karnataka Planning Commission. Puttaswamy embraced ascetic and became a seer of the Ganiga community. He was coroneted as the first pontiff of Shri Kshetra Thaleshwara Ganiga Mahasamsthana Matha on May 15, 2022.
Puttaswamy served as a minister in the former CM and BJP MP Jagadish Shettar's cabinet. When the BJP came to power for the first time in Karnataka and under attack from the opposition, Puttaswamy exposed the scams of the opposition leaders. He was a close associate of former CM B.S. Yediyurappa.