Centre attempting to deceive SC on drought relief: K’taka CM
Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said on Monday that it is deplorable that the Centre has submitted false information to the Supreme Court to deceive it on the rightful drought relief that the state is entitled to.
“Faced with continued delays by the Union government in providing the rightful drought relief to Karnataka, our government was compelled to seek justice from the Supreme Court. But during the hearing on Monday, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta argued that the Karnataka government should be blamed for the delay in drought relief, suggesting a political motive behind it. This is highly condemnable,” the Chief Minister said in a press release.
“For drought relief, they (Karnataka) could have talked to us (Centre). We can see the timing of such petitions,” the Solicitor General said, attempting to shift the blame to the Karnataka government to cover up the Centre’s failures, the Chief Minister claimed.
“As I have repeatedly said over the past 2-3 months, our government had submitted a memorandum to the Union government in September 2023, detailing the losses and the expected relief amount. After that, along with Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda, I met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi to appeal for relief.
“Our Deputy Chief Minister (D.K. Shivakumar) had separately met the Union Finance Minister. Despite this, the Finance Minister and the Home Minister falsely claimed that the Karnataka government was late in submitting its request. And today, the Centre repeated this lie before the Supreme Court,” Siddaramaiah said.
The Supreme Court, after taking into account the statements made by the Solicitor General, postponed the hearing in the case by two weeks.
“Our fight against the Centre’s injustice will continue, not just on the streets, but also in the courts. We will expose the lies of the Union government one by one and reveal its true face to the people of the state,” the Chief Minister said.