Referring to the irregularities and misappropriation of funds in the State-run Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation, BJP MLC C.T. Ravi has said that corruption is the sixth and undeclared guarantee of the Congress government.
“Not just in the Valmiki Development Corporation, corruption is rampant in other State-owned corporations and departments. We have a strong suspicion that public funds misappropriated from these corporations are being diverted to the Congress for its election expenses. Corruption is the sixth and undeclared guarantee of the Congress government. We will continue to raise our voices inside and outside the legislature against corruption,” Mr. Ravi told a media conference at Aiwan-e-Shahi Guest House in Kalaburagi on Tuesday.
Coming down heavily on the Congress-led State government for increasing the prices of essential commodities and services, Mr. Ravi said that hiking prices has become the government’s new policy.
“The Congress government in the State has increased excise duty, stamp duty, motor vehicle registration fees, the fee for getting RTCs, income certificate, birth and death certificates, electricity rates, water cess and petrol and diesel prices. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, when he was in the Opposition, had said that the rise in fuel prices will lead to the rise of prices of all essential commodities and services. Now, he himself has hiked fuel prices twice in the last 13 months,” Mr. Ravi reminded Mr. Siddaramaiah.
Terming the recommendations of Boston Consulting Group to the Congress government as suicidal, Mr. Ravi said that selling government land to mobilise resources is just like burning a house to sell its charcoal.
“Mr. Siddaramaiah is often credited with presenting the highest number of budgets. Such a person is considering the recommendation of consulting group to sell government land to mobilise funds. The recommendation is like setting his own house ablaze to sell its charcoal. The government could have thought of creating jobs, increasing incomes and the purchasing power of the people and collecting taxes from them to meet its requirements,” he said.
Contradicting Mr. Siddaramaiah’s claim that his government’s financial condition is stable, Mr. Ravi said that the government’s financial condition is so critical that it has not been able to pay the salaries of guest teachers for the last one year, release subsidies to milk producing farmers and pay pending bills of contractors for the last 13 months.
“On the one hand, contractors have not received their pending bills for a long time and, on the other, they are not getting fresh work to sustain themselves. They are saying that the machinery and vehicles that they have bought by taking loans will have to be scraped,” he said.
Responding to the demand for increasing the number of Deputy Chief Minister posts in the State, Mr. Ravi said that the demand is not for the development of the State and welfare of its people but for controlling Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar and preventing him from reaching the Chief Minister’s seat.
“Clashes within the Congress for the Deputy Chief Minister’s post and other positions will not end shortly. They are likely to result in the Congress government’s fall. Some disgruntled Assembly members of the ruling party are having meetings in Mumbai and Hyderabad and discussing how to destabilise the government,” he said.
To a question, Mr. Ravi said that his party will not want the collapse of the government but the Congress government is likely to collapse due to its own internal clashes.
BJP leaders N. Mahesh, Shashil Namoshi, B.G. Patil, Chandu Patil, Basavaraj Mattimadu, Shivaraj Patil Raddewadagi and others were present.
