"Congress made Karnataka bankrupt in name of guarantee": Basavaraj Bommai

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], April 22 : Karnataka former Chief Minister and Gadag-Haveri Lok Sabha constituency BJP candidate Basavaraj Bommai has in a scathing attack on the Congress government's financial management, accused it of pushing the state towards bankruptcy.
"The Congress party has made the state bankrupt in the name of guarantee. A whopping Rs 54,000 crore was being spent on guarantees but without any preparation. The taxpayers' money had been spent on guarantees thus pushing for the economic crisis. To cover up this, the Union government was being blamed," Bommai said.
"The NDA has brought in several changes in the last ten years. The yardstick for disaster management has changed. There has been an increase in the tax portion of the state from the central government. But the state government has hushed up everything and stopped very low to cover up its mistakes. The Congress party has become frustrated regarding finance and its leaders were using low-level language," he further said.
Highlighting tax collection and fund allocation differences between the UPA and NDA regimes, Bommai said, "During the UPA regime between 2004 and 2014, the state received Rs 81,795 crore as its share in tax collection and Karnataka got Rs 2,82,791 crore during 2014 to 2024 under the NDA regime... The state received Rs 60,799 crore in central funds during the UPA regime and Rs 2,33,930 crore from the Modi government."
"The state has got an interest-free loan of Rs 6,012 crore for development works which was repayable in 50 years. Before the Modi government, all the states were getting a 27 percent share in the tax collected and they demanded to hike it. But it was not done. Prime Minister Narendra Modi increased it to 40 per cent," Bommai said
He further criticized the government for failing to provide crop relief to drought-affected farmers and discontinuing the 'Kisan Sanman' and 'Vidya Nidhi' schemes.
He added, "Rs 2000 had been given to each farmer out of the central government funds. Let the state government first do its duty without looking at the centre. The state government has stopped paying its share of the PM Kisan Samman scheme under which the central government gives Rs 4000 to each farmer."
"By doing this, the Siddaramaiah government has given a Chembu to farmers. The Vidya Nidhi scheme for the children of farmers has been stopped. Rs 13,000 crore reserved for the SCs/STs had been diverted for the implementation of guarantees," Basavaraj Bommai said.
Bommai also hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's welfare initiatives, describing them as transformative and symbolizing an upgrade from 'Chembu' to 'Akshaya Patra'.
"PM Modi has given permanent guarantees to people and through this he has converted the Chembu' into Akshaya Patra. Grants had been given to nine lakh street vendors, nine lakh Ujjwal connections, four lakh houses, 12 lakh toilets, and 10 kg free rice during the Covid pandemic," he said.
The Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka are scheduled to take place over two phases, with polling slated for April 26 and May 7.
The counting of votes will be held on June 4.