New Delhi/Bengaluru, Nov 4 (IANS) Union Minister Pralhad Joshi has launched a scathing attack on the Congress government in Karnataka, accusing it of pushing the once prosperous state towards economic decline by imposing repeated price hikes while claiming to provide free guarantees.
The Karnataka government, which aggressively campaigned on the promise of free travel before coming to power, has now pushed all four state transport corporations, including Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) and Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), into severe financial distress, he alleged.
Joshi claimed that the transport corporations had reached a situation where they were struggling even to find money to purchase diesel for their buses. By accumulating thousands of crores of rupees in pending payments under the guarantee schemes, the government had pushed the corporations into financial losses, he alleged.
He expressed concern that the state transport corporations, which were functioning successfully and profitably, had plunged into losses during the three-and-a-half years of Congress rule.
Accusing the Karnataka government of damaging the state’s economy, Joshi said it had increased the prices of essential commodities to cover up its lack of planning and administrative failures. After increasing the prices of milk, curd and ghee, the government had now imposed a steep hike in bus fares, delivering repeated blows to the common people, he said.
He alleged that the government had demonstrated poor governance by pushing an economically strong and prosperous state towards financial decline while neglecting public welfare.
Joshi further alleged that development in Karnataka had come to a standstill since the Congress government assumed office. Instead of undertaking development works and strengthening the state exchequer, the government had emptied the treasury, he charged.
Within days of increasing the prices of Nandini milk, curd and ghee, the government had arbitrarily raised bus fares, placing an additional burden on poor people, students and employees earning modest salaries, he said.
Questioning the rationale behind the guarantee schemes, Joshi asked what kind of guarantee it was when the government claimed to provide free services on one hand while increasing the prices of essential commodities and everyday services on the other.
The Karnataka government was claiming to offer free benefits but was recovering ten times the cost from people’s pockets through successive price hikes, he alleged.
V. Sunil Kumar, former Minister and BJP MLA, commenting on the bus fare hike, stated, “This has once again proved that it is not a guarantee government but a government of robbery.”
Within a week of increasing the price of milk by Rs 8 per litre, the government has now hiked bus fares by 23 to 35 per cent.
When questioned about this, the Chief Minister has given the dismissive response that the Centre should reduce fuel prices and that the state government would then reduce bus fares, Sunil Kumar said.
Is shifting the blame to the Central government for every price hike and washing one’s hands of the issue a form of governance? he questioned.
He further questioned, having come to power in the name of guarantees, is the Karnataka government’s only achievement to burden people by taking money out of their pockets through hikes in milk and bus fares?
People do not want the burden of further price hikes. The people themselves will give a fitting reply to the anti-people policies of the Congress government, he said.
–IANS
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