Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar on Thursday referred to a letter of complaint from 11 MLAs to Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah as being false and claimed the legislators were told to wait for funding because the move to meet election pledges had taken a significant amount of the money. According to him, the Karnataka Congress government must set aside Rs 40,000 crore for the five campaign commitments this financial year.
On Tuesday, eleven Congress MLAs complained in a letter to Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah that 20 ministers were ignoring their demands for work in their districts.
According to DK Shivakumar, the deputy chief minister of Karnataka, the Congress-led administration does not have any funding for new development projects because it has set aside money to carry out its five election-related pledges. Shivakumar criticised the MLA’s letter of complaint to the chief minister, claiming that the ministers had already briefed the MLAs on the issue.
‘That complaint letter to the chief minister from 11 MLAs was bogus. One cannot use a random letter pad and put words into it. We have to keep aside Rs 40,000 crore for the five poll promises for the remaining financial year. We can’t give money for fresh development projects this year,’ Shivakumar said.
DK Shivakumar said that the MLAs were briefed about the situation. ‘We have not allotted funds for the irrigation and public works departments, either. People’s expectations are high and we asked MLAs to wait.’
‘We will hold a meeting with the MLAs to discuss the situation. Even the CM, during the Budget session, asked us to be patient,’ he said.
He claimed that although the ministers had notified the MLAs that there was a funding shortage since money had been set aside for the election promises, the MLAs had claimed that the ministries were not cooperating or releasing funds.
He claimed that about Rs 59,000 crore was set aside annually by the Karnataka government for the election pledges.
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