“Sangh Parivar outfits like the ABVP, Bajrang Dal, BJP Yuva Morcha are all factories manufacturing lies. They create fake news and peddle lies only to benefit the BJP and advance the Sangh Parivar’s communal agenda,” Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said in Gadag on Sunday.
To a query on complaints by some ABVP leaders that students are facing huge inconvenience in commuting to schools and colleges as all the KSRTC buses are full of women availing free rides under the Shakti scheme, the Chief Minister said that the ABVP is the student wing of the BJP and its primary job is to spread lies.
To a question on whether the government planned to drop the Shakti scheme as funds have dried up, he said that necessary fund allocations have been made already.
“The government is reimbursing the cost borne by the State transport undertakings for free rides for women. With these funds, the KSRTC or other transport undertakings will not only take up repairs of buses but also buy new buses. There is no shortage of funds either for our guarantee schemes or the other welfare and development schemes. However, if there are genuine complaints from any department wing or State transport undertakings suffering due to fund scarcity, they will be verified and addressed,” he said.
“If you compare the development expenditure of the Congress and the BJP governments, we get a clear picture. Till the end of November, the previous government had spent ₹70,814 crore on development. But our government has spent ₹73,928 crore. We have spent over ₹3,000 crore more than them. We formed the government on May 20 and presented the budget in July. The budgetary provisions were implemented on August 1. Four guarantees have already been implemented and the fifth guarantee will be initiated in January next,” he said.
