The chief ministers of Congress-ruled states of Telangana, Himachal Pradesh and a deputy chief minister of Karnataka on Saturday hit back at the BJP-led MahaYuti for making “fake claims” that the grand old party had not implemented the guarantees it had given to the people ahead of the Assembly polls in their respective states.
On a day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the Congress for using the states ruled by it as ATMs for loot, scams and corruption, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhwinder Sukhu, Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy and Deputy CM of Karnataka D. K. Shivakumar slammed Modi and BJP for spreading ‘lies and falsehoods’.
Sukhu, Reddy and Shivkumar, accompanied by AICC Media and Publicity Chairman Pawan Khera, tore into what they called “fake claims” made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP leaders and listed out the implementation of their party's guarantees in their respective states.
Shivkumar said that the Congress’ six guarantees were not announced overnight but were unveiled after a careful study of the peoples’ problems during Rahul Gandhi’s two-phased Bharat Jodo Yatras undertaken two years
“As soon as we came to power, Chief Minister D Siddaramaiah started immediately rolling out the promised guarantees. Over 1.22 crore women are getting Rs 2,000 every month under the Grihalakshmi Scheme, 1.64 crore families are gett-
ing the benefits of 200 units free electricity through the Gruha Jyothi Scheme and 4.08 crore falling Below Poverty Line are getting 10 kg free rice under the ‘Annabhagya Scheme,” Shivkumar said.
“Another 3.20 crore women travelled free on State Transport buses vide the Shakti Scheme, and the Yuva Nidhi Scheme has extended Rs 3000 every month to over five-lakh students,” Shivakumar said, adding that the Mahayuti leaders
should visit Karnataka to see how the Congress' welfare guarantees were benefiting people.
"Whenever the Congress comes to power, it implements one or the other scheme for each section of the society. None of the schemes announced since the days of Jawaharlal Nehru to Manmohan Singh has been withdrawn. We are not looking at votes but development of the state," Shivakumar said.
“In Karnataka, all the schemes were implemented within 60 days after coming to power. A provision of Rs 52,000 crore has been made from Karnataka’s budget of Rs 3,65,000 crore, which is higher than many BJP-ruled states,” Shivkumar said.
Castigating Modi for “spreading lies” about the performance of the Congress-ruled states in the country, Reddy said: "We are implementing all our guarantees systematically…. After coming to power, we have waived farm loans worth Rs 17,869 crore taken
by taken by 22,22,067 farmers”
“In 10 months, our government has provided 50,000 government jobs to the youth, while 50 lakh families have benefitted from the 200 units free electricity scheme, Reddy said.
Dismissing the “fake narrative” being spread by Modi and the BJP, Reddy said: “The BJP does not have any success story to boast of. Even in Maharashtra, the party has moved out big investment projects to Gujarat. I urge the people of Maharashtra not to believe in the BJP’s false propaganda and defeat the MahaYuti in a big way,” Reddy said.
Explaining the manner in which his government had gone about implementing its promises to the people in Himachal Pradesh, Sukhu said that his government's decision to implement the old pension scheme had benefitted people immensely.
“Any person who was getting a pension of Rs 5,000 per month under the New Pension Scheme is getting
Rs 50,000 under the Old Pension Scheme. We are giving commodities at Minimum Support Price rates –Rs 30 per kg of maize, Rs 40 per kg for wheat, Rs 45 per litre for cow milk and Rs 50 per litre for buffalo milk,” he said.
Sukhu, Reddy and Shivkumar slammed the Prime Minister for writing off nearly
Rs 12-lakhs-crore loans of rich industrialists.
“See the irony, on one hand the Prime Minister waives loans worth Rs 12 lakh crores taken by the industrialists.
On the other hand, the BJP criticises the governments in the Congress-ruled states for utilising the peoples’ money for public welfare schemes
in line with its guarantees.
Apart from Sukhu, Reddy, Shivkumar and Khera, Mahila Congress President Alka Lamba, AICC Secretary BM Sandeep, UB Venkatesh, state Mahila Congress chief Sandhya Savvalakhe and Charanjit Singh Sapra were among those present on the occasion.
