Pics: Abhijith N Kolpe
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (ANK)
Mangaluru, Aug 31: Former chief minister and Congress leader Siddaramaiah, who is visiting flood affected areas, addressed party representatives at Town Hall on Saturday, August 31.
“Since the past 10 days, I am visiting flood affected areas such as Bagalkot, Bijapur, Belagavi, and Kodagu and now I am in Dakshina Kannada to review the flood situation. The flood this time was severe and claimed lives of 88 people. Several houses have suffered damages. However, I am not sure about the priorities of the present state government and PM Narendra Modi. In spite of the severe floods in the state, no compensation has been released yet. Instead of wiping tears of the poor, PM Modi is busy enjoying tour abroad. It is unfortunate that he has not visited a single state so far,” Siddaramaiah lashed out.
“During the 2009 floods, the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had conducted an aerial survey to review the flood situation and had released Rs 1,600 crore. But Modi has not conducted any aerial survey nor released the relief amount to the state, even 23 days after the flood. How can we call him a pro-farmer and pro-people leader? “questioned the former CM.
He further said, “There are 25 Lok Sabha members in the state. I do not know what they are doing. None of the Lok Sabha members have approached the Prime Minister with regard to flood havoc in the state. This is Modi’s 6th year and our economy has come down drastically. There is no job creation in the country. People are still facing the impact of demonetisation and GST, but Modi is busy enjoying his tour.
“Indira Gandhi had nationalised the banks for the sake of the poor but today banks are being merged. Dakshina Kannada is known for banking sector and today decisions are being taken to merge the banks that belonged to the district,” he added.
“Modi is known for telling lies and is king of telling lies. He did not deliver any promises that he has made so far, such as bringing back black money, crediting Rs 15 lac to banks accounts. Even the departments such as ED, Income Tax, CBI and RBI are being misused for political reasons. These departments are under the union government’s clutches,” said Siddaramaiah.
“I urge party representatives not to be demoralized. Election may come any time. Do not believe that the present government will continue for 3 years. Yediyurappa is such a leader who just wants to acquire the chief minister’s seat. When taking oath, he wears green shawl to prove that he is leader of farmers. But when it comes to waiving loans of farmers, he shies away from fulfilling their demands. Yediyurappa has miserably failed to prove majority. He opted to horse trade and made 17 MLAs resign. Now, they have approached Supreme Court,” said Siddaramaiah.
He also said," Parliament elections, assembly elections, municipal elections, panchayat elections are different. In municipal elections, Congress stands number one, even in Yediyurappa’s constituency at Shikaripura. Congress has managed to dominate in municipal elections. Next, Panchayat elections are approaching. We need to take it as a challenge and we are confident we will be emerging as number 1, even here.”
"Assembly elections can come anytime. We need to prepare for it and we are confident that Congress will be victorious. We need to work from ground level and build our party,” said Siddaramaiah.
Former union minister Veerappa Moily, MLA U T Khader, former minister Ramanath Rai, former MLAs J R Lobo, Mohiuddin Bava, MLC Ivan D'Souza, District Youth Congress president Mithun Rai, former mayor Kavitha Sanil and others were present.