Siddaramaiah assures monthly meetings, funding for urgent work to pacify disgruntled legislators

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting on Thursday, the CM assured the legislators that the government would finish all urgent works adequately. The CM slammed the BJP in the meeting, saying the saffron party was a “factory of lies.” Asking his colleagues to be wary of the party, he said, “First they create lies.

Then they spread that through their Parivar (family) of lies, and then they will ensure that discussions take place in the media on the same lie.” The CLP meet happened in the wake of growing displeasure amidst party MLAs who were not receiving funds for their constituencies. On Tuesday, 11 MLAs had written to CM Siddaramaiah asking for funds for development works.

Deputy CM DK Shivakumar added fuel to the fire by announcing on Wednesday that the state would be unable to release any funds for development works this year, owing to Congress’ poll guarantees taking up a huge chunk of the state budget. According to the Congress budget presented on July 7, the guarantees — free bus rides for women, 10 kg rice every month to BPL families, up to 200 units free electricity for every household, Rs 2,000 to women of BPL families and unemployment stipend to graduates and diploma holders — cost the state about Rs 52,800 crore.

Calling the guarantees the new government’s top priority, Shivakumar laid the blame for the insufficient funds solely at the feet of the previous BJP regime, which he said, had “bankrupted the state by floating excessive tenders.” The current regime, he said, was paying for the previous one’s mistakes. The Opposition BJP came down heavily on the deputy CM for his statement, saying that this showed how “visionless and directionless” the new regime was.