Silvester D'Souza
Daijiworld Media Network - Kundapur

Kundapur, Oct 5: "People are disgusted with the Siddaramaiah-led regime of last two-and-a-half years. Development in the state has come to a standstill. The situation today is such there is no one to listen to the grievances of the poor and the farmers. Hence, holding a people's movement against the Tughlaq Darbar of the state government is the only way out," said former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa.

He was speaking after inaugurating the second leg of 'Raita Chaitanya Yatre' held at Shetrakatte near Karkunje under the leadership of BJP Byndoor unit.

Criticizing chief minister Siddaramaiah for his statement that it was 'unfortunate' that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was born in the land of Mahatma Gandhi, Yeddyurappa said, "Siddaramaiah has no moral right to talk about Prime Minister Modi who was born in the same state as Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel and who has won respect all over the world. He must apologise to the nation for speaking ill about the Prime Minister.

"During BJP's regime, a lot of rural as well as urban development took place under Suvarna Gramodaya Yojana and other projects. Taking this as a model, if the state government, in addition to the funds from the union government, releases Rs 1 crore, the gram panchayats may see some development. The chief minister should reveal how much of the Rs 1.36 lac crore budget announced by him has been used so far. When 173 taluks are facing drought, what good can waiving only the interest on loans do to the farmer? The state government should take measures to waiva farmers' loans taken from cooperative banks and interest rates on loans from nationalised banks," he said.

On the sand mafia in Udupi district, Yeddyurappa said a clearcut sand policy should be enforced to check illegal mining. He also said steps should be taken to revive the Brahmavar Sugar Factory. "The state government should be cautious about how it uses the Rs 1.83566 lac crore in the next five years under the 14th Finance Commission. The state government should order a probe into the irregularities in the rural development deparment and take strict action against the guilty," he said.

"The implementation of Kasturirangan report will adversely impact 1,573 villages in 10 districts. Even though the state government has been urged to send a response on it on the lines of Kerala government's response, no decisiver step has been taken so far.

"The controversial Yettinahole project will be discussed and our party will arrive at a decision. The central leaders are ready to discuss the Kalasa-Banduri water project with the BJP chief minister (of Goa), hence the state government too should respond positively to resolve the issue," he urged.

Byndoor BJP unit president B M Sukumar Shetty welcomed the gathering while Sadananda Uppinakudru compered.

Udupi-Chikkamagaluru MP Shobha Karandlaje, former MLA B Sriramulu, Kota Srinivas Poojary, MLA Sunil Kumar, former MLAs Raghupati Bhat, Lalaji Mendon, Monappa Bhandary, district BJP president Thingale Vikramarjuna Hegde and many others were present.