Siddaramaiah-led Congress Government in Karnataka has completed one year in office. Siddaramaiah, who played backward class politics said, “the lok Sabha results, whatever it may be, is no referendum on my Government.” The Karnataka Chief Minister expressed happiness and satisfaction over one-year-long administration and said financial position of the State has improved. He told reporters in Mysore he was happy with his performance during last one year.
65-year-old Siddaramaiah, who had announced a slew of programmes aimed at empowering backward classes, has played vote-bank politics to the hilt consolidating his position in the State.
The Congress Government led by him assumed office on May 13 last year. According to Congress sources, no celebrations have been planned to highlight achievements of the people in view of the prevailing code of conduct of the Election Commission which is in operation till the completion of counting of votes to the lok Sabha on May 16, and also due to the drought conditions in some parts of the State.
“I am happy with my achievements. People have appreciated the achievements of my Government. However, there is a need to achieve more,” said Siddaramaiah.
He also said that the financial condition of the State had improved during his regime. He would place his achievements at the State-level and the district-levels. “The new programmes of the Government, like ‘Anna Bhagya’ and ‘Ksheera Bhagya’, have reached the people. People will assess the performance of my Government,” the Chief Minister said.
Meanwhile, the leading Opposition BJP slammed the performance of Siddaramaiah Government on completion of one year in office, and called it “a withdrawal Government”.
BJP State unit president Prahlad Joshi said the Congress Government led by Siddaramaiah has not taken off. He said “...You (Government) lied through the Governor’s speech which promised to provide free laptops and sanitary napkins on which you later backed off. Governor’s address is policy guidelines for the full year and you have backed off from what you have promised in that.” “In the same way you have withdrawn from many of your own decisions. If we go on counting, it will grow over a dozen,” he added.
Accusing the Government of not doing enough to manage the drought situation, he said district in-charge Ministers were not working towards supplying drinking water in their respective districts and were not paying enough attention towards drought relief work.
“The State Government is completely non-functional, they are just calculating on the outcome of the lok Sabha polls ...,” he added.
Stating that the Government has totally failed in its first year’s performance, Joshi said, “This Government has not even taken off. There are no signs of it taking off. Even before it may take off, the Government is likely to come to a complete halt due to technical snag.”