Mangaluru: District minister in-charge, B Ramanath Rai held a press meet at the District Congress Office here, on May 25.
Addressing the mediapersons, Ramanath Rai said that the Congress government has introduced the Panchayat Raj (Amendment) Bill to strengthen the Panchayat Raj system and for the genuine devolution of power below the state level through the Panchayat Raj institutions. “But when the BJP government was in power in Karnataka, they restricted the power of the Panchayat Raj. In DK district, the representatives of the Panchayat forgetting party differences walked out of the meetings, locked the Taluk Panchayat office and protested this act of the BJP. The BJP has never trusted the Panchayat Raj system and now they are blaming the Congress government which is not fair.”
He further said that when the BJP was in power, poor people did not get BPL cards. “But when the Congress government led by Siddaramaiah came to power, in DK district alone more than 25,000 BPL cards have been distributed to the poor. When the Congress government held a free distribution of rice to the BPL card holders, BJP leader C T Ravi said that it is a union government scheme. If the distribution of rice is the scheme of the BJP government, then why are there no such schemes in other states where BJP governments are in power?” Rai questioned.
“The revenue department is organizing various programmes such as revenue adalat and pension adalat to solve the problems of the people. The BJP is blaming that the Congress government has not given land to the poor people; infact, the same BJP had opposed the Land Acquisition Bill which was introduced by the UPA government in 2013. The Siddaramaiah government has provided interest free loans to farmers, and under the 94(C) act, land rights have been given to the poor which the BJP finds hard to digest.”
“When the UPA government was in power, there were a number of development projects. But when the NDA government came to power, the funds for development work have been reduced. MP Nalin Kumar Katel, who calls himself number one MP in the country, should know whether the Union government has sanctioned additional funds for development work or not.”
He also said that before the election, the BJP government in its manifesto had promised to bring back the black money from foreign banks but now the BJP government is not even raising the issue of black money. “When the price for oil was $135 a barrel in the international market, the petrol price in India was Rs 70 per litre but now the crude oil price in the international market is $65 a barrel and the petrol price in India has not decreased. Why?”
Mayor Jacintha Alfred, Chairman of MUDA Ibrahim Kodijal, Sashidhar Hegde, Youth congress leader Mithun Rai and others were also present.