Bengaluru: Former Chief Minister M Veerappa Moily on Tuesday challenged the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders to come out with proof to support the allegations made against the Siddaramaiah led government.
“Siddaramaiah government is the best in the country. The specialty of the government is that there are no corruption charges against it,’’ Moily told reporters at the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) office here.
BJP senior leader Muralidhar Rao had announced that the BJP leaders will come out with corruption charges against the Siddaramaiah government on a daily basis during the 75-day long Nava Karnataka Parivarthana Yatra that is scheduled to begin on November 2 in Bengaluru.
“The BJP leaders will have to come out with corruption charges against themselves. There is nothing to prove against Siddaramaiah government. Till today, the BJP leaders have failed to prove their allegations against Siddaramaiah government,’’ the former chief minister said.
He said Karnataka was in the 11th place as far as industrial growth is concerned during the BJP regime in 2013 but later it attained the fourth place in the country after Congress came to power.
“In 2017, the state got Rs 1,46,131 crore investment thus making Karnataka No. 1 in the country while Gujarat is in the second place, Maharashtra (third) and Andhra Pradesh in the fourth place,’’ he said.
He also explained how Karnataka has been in the forefront in employment generation among all the states in the country.
“The government has created a conducive atmosphere for creation of 14.19 lakh jobs during the last four years in the state,’’ he said.
Violation of Constitution
Former chief minister Veerappa Moily questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the delay in commencing the election process in Gujarat. He said the Election Commission’s decision not to announce the schedule for the forthcoming Assembly elections in Gujarat simultaneously with Himachal Pradesh has not gone down well with the former chief election commissioners who alleged that it has badly damaged the credibility of the poll body.
“They went on to say that deferring the announcement of Gujarat poll dates is not only a blot on the functioning of the EC but it also amounts to the violation of the Constitution,’’ he said.
He said the model code of conduct comes into effect the moment the Election Commission announces the poll dates.
“It bars the Government from announcing any new schedule or project,’’ he said.
Stating that Congress is set to romp home in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, he said the Congress will retain power in Karnataka.
“The anti-incumbency has been working against Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the Centre and BJP government in Gujarat in the last nine months,’’ he said.
He said Narmada project in Gujarat remains incomplete even though BJP is in power for 22 years out of which Narendra Modi was chief minister for 14 years.
He blamed Prime Minister Naredra Modi using Narmada dam project as an election gimmick without completing even 20 per cent 90,389 kms of canal network.
“Today, water reaches only three lakh hectares out of the planned irrigation of 19 lakh hectares. Will the BJP government and the Prime Ministers, who are responsible for this abject failure, apologise to farmers of Gujarat?’’ he asked.
GDP to slip to 6 pc
He said the Indian economy was expected to gradually accelerate its real GDP growth rate from 7.5 per cent to 8 per cent per annum before the demonetization.
“We now expect this growth trajectory to shift down to about 6 per cent for the next five years,’’ he said.
Job loss
He said the employment opportunities have been affected by a series of shocks over the past one year and the first was demonetization in November 2106, then the good and service tax (GST) in July 2017.
“One of the biggest cost of demonetization was job losses. We estimate that about two million jobs were lost between January and August 2017 and 1.54 million jobs were lost between January and April 2017 and another 0.42 million jobs were lost between May and August 2017,’’ he said.
