Bengaluru, July 19: Close on the heels of AICC General Secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala holding meeting with the Congress legislators, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's special allocation of Rs 50 crore each for the Assembly constituencies represented by Congress MLAs has kicked up a row.
While opposition BJP has come down heavily on the government, charging that the State treasury was being treated as Congress party treasury, Home Minister Dr G Parameshwar defended the government move saying that even the BJP during its ruling had shown such disparity.
On Thursday, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has issued a special allotment head called Chief Minister's Infrastructure Development Scheme and has decided to allocate Rs 50 crore each to Congress legislators. The scheme has laid down conditions for utilising the funds.
Out of Rs 50 crore, Rs 37.50 crore have to be used through PWD department for developing roads, bridges and urban developmental work. The other Rs 12.50 crore would be allotted to the developmental works under local legislators' discretion.
There is a raider for allotment of the funds also. The legislators, with their proposal have to approach Chief Minister's Secretary Dr Venkateshaiah and Special Officer Shashidhar and submit their proposals. The project would be implemented only after the Chief Minister's consent.
Interestingly, the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) office has issued a circular to all the Congress legislators to make use of the new scheme for them. The conditions of whom the legislators have to approach for getting their project proposals cleared has been mentioned in that circular.
Meanwhile, the opposition BJP has come down heavily on Siddaramaiah government, stating that the government was treating the state treasury like the Congress party treasury.
"Mr Siddaramaiah always blames that the Union government exhibits step motherly attitude towards the State. However, what do you call allocating Rs 50 crore for the constituencies represented by Congress members and not allocating anything to the constituencies represented by opposition members? Do you mean to say that only people who voted for Congress belong to Karnataka or are you chief minister only for Congress voters? It is shame on the part of shameless Congress,'' he said.
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said that even the constituencies represented by opposition party members would get special allocation and they should wait for some time. Irked by the reaction, Ashok asked what does Deputy Chief Minister mean by waiting for some time?
"Does that mean that the opposition members should be submissive to you people? To allocate funds as per your wishes, the treasury belongs to state and not your party,'' he said.
Meanwhile, Home Minister Dr G Parameshwar said that such disparity took place even during the earlier BJP government. "The constituencies represented by Congress and JD(S) MLAs never got funds when BJP was ruling the states. Most of these constituencies are lagging behind and we are trying to compensate for that. Even my constituency of Koratagere did not receive funds during BJP ruling,'' he added.
