Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s reply to misleading statements of B S Yediyurappa
BENGALURU:
Yediyurappa said that the Union government has released Rs 450 crore for the suburban rail project of Bengaluru. This is only a half truth. The reality is different and it is Yediyurappa who is covering up the injustice that is happening, not me.
In the 2018-19 Union Budget speech, the then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the Union Government will plan the Bengaluru Suburban Rail Project at a cost of Rs 17,000 crore. BJP had also included this declaration in its 2018 election manifesto.
In its manifesto, the BJP had stated, “We will complete the Bengaluru Suburban Rail Project using the Rs 17,000 crore provided by the Union Government”. This means that the state BJP itself had accepted that the Union government had allocated Rs 17,000 crore in the budget for the suburban rail project. But, that 17,000 crore was not released.
The Karnataka BJP, which came to power after overthrowing the coalition government in the state through Operation Lotus in July 2019, had gone to betray the people. Not wanting to grant funding to the project, the Union Government, in its Union Budget 2020-21 presented in February 2020, announced that it would only grant 20%, the state government would give 20% and the remaining 60% would be loaned to the state.
The then state BJP government agreed to it without saying anything. After this new change, in 2022-23, the Union Government had allocated Rs 450 crore, but released only Rs 50 crore. Then, in the current year, Rs 1,350 crore has been allocated, but so far only Rs 450 crore has been released.
It is ironic that Yediyurappa, who betrayed Karnataka back then along with the Modi government, is now accusing the Congress of showing indifference to the Suburban Rail Project.
