Bengaluru, Sep 24 BJP MLA V Sunil Kumar on Thursday accused the Karnataka Congress government of “favouring” real estate interests over farmers and failing to take adequate measures to address the drought.
He also took a dig at the government’s financial position, calling it a “zero balance government”.
Participating in a debate on drought in the Assembly, the Karkala legislator said the government had “given prominence to Adani over Annadata (farmer)” and described it as a “real-estate government, not a pro-farmer one”.
Kumar was referring to Chief Minister D K Shivakumar’s August 23 meeting with billionaire industrialist Gautam Adani.
Alleging that Karnataka had failed to make adequate preparations despite early warnings of a rainfall deficit, the former minister compared the state’s response with that of neighbouring Tamil Nadu to the El Niño weather phenomenon.
He claimed that Tamil Nadu had formed a 10-member expert committee to prepare for the situation and identified 12 vulnerable districts, while Karnataka had only written to the Centre on the issue and remained silent.
The BJP leader criticised Shivakumar, saying that given that he identifies himself as an agriculturist by birth, he should understand the difficulties faced by farmers.
“Someone like that should know the difficulties faced by farmers. But he isn’t listening to farmers’ cries,” he claimed.
He questioned the government’s decision to celebrate 100 days in office on September 10 despite the severe drought situation in the state, saying its focus should instead have been on drought management and restoring farmers’ confidence.
“The government should have set everything aside to focus on drought and instil confidence in distressed farmers,” he said.
Kumar alleged that the money spent on newspaper advertisements to mark the government’s 100 days could instead have been used to address the problems faced by farmers in a taluk.
He sought details of ministers’ visits to districts to review drought-management measures.
“Please help me find the horticulture minister (S S Mallikarjun). How many districts did the agriculture minister (P M Narendraswamy) visit? What has the animal husbandry minister (C P Puttarangashetty) done?” he asked.
Kumar took a dig at the government’s financial position, alleging that it was making commitments despite having limited funds.
“Your government is running on a bank account whose balance is zero. Yet, you’ve been writing blank cheques in Cabinet meetings. Don’t fool people. This is a zero-balance government…..I expect nothing from this government,” the BJP MLA added.
(PTI News)
