‘A burden on exchequer’: Opposition BJP slams Karnataka’s poll guarantee implementation committees

CM Siddaramaiah has announced the formation of implementation committees to oversee the state government’s five guarantee schemes.

Karnataka BJP leaders R Asoka and BS Yeddyurappa. (File photo)

The decision of Siddaramaiah-led government in Karnataka to form implementation committees to ensure that its five election guarantees reached beneficiaries has come under fire from the Opposition BJP.

Leader of Opposition R Ashoka has termed it as a committee to provide government cars to disgruntled legislators and alleged that CM Siddaramaiah is imposing another burden on the government.

“This will cause an additional burden of Rs 16 crore at a time when the exchequer was bearing the strain of guarantees. Why are you misusing public funds to use disgruntled MLAs and key party workers for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections?… If you cannot implement the guarantees with the help of ministers and administrative machinery, then resign and go home,” he told reporters on Thursday.

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BJP MP Tejasvi Surya, in a tweet, said that the government decision to create a machinery of Cabinet-ranked middle-men to oversee its financially disastrous guarantees was astounding. “What will ministers do? Why have a parallel Govt to monitor govt schemes? Which is the real Govt and which is the mafia?” he tweeted.

CM Siddaramaiah on Wednesday announced the formation of implementation committees for the state government’s five guarantee schemes. The committees will be formed at the state, district and taluk levels with Congress workers as its members.

Apart from ensuring the effective implementation of the guarantee schemes, the committees are tasked with addressing misinformation campaigns against the guarantee schemes, Siddaramaiah had said.

The state-level committee will comprise a president — who will be accorded a Cabinet rank — and five vice-presidents with the rank of state ministers. In each of the 31 districts, there will be dedicated presidents, vice-presidents and members for the implementation committee, said Siddaramaiah, adding that office facility and honorarium will also be provided to the members.

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