DK Shivakumar accuses Centre of "stepmotherly treatment" to Karnataka over development funds

Karnataka Congress Chief and State Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar has accused the Centre of stepmotherly treatment to Karnataka regarding funds for several development projects amid drought conditionsIn an exclusive conversation with ANI when asked about his claims of paucity of funds for projects DK Shivakumar said In Karnataka there was a doubleengine government Chief Minister Bommai when he was in power himself admitted on record in the assembly that we would have to fight for our share He accused Centre of not giving an extra 50 days of work in droughthit TaluksI am not talking about big things there is MGNREGA programme in which every drought time they have to permit us 150 days but they are giving only 100 days they have to give 50 more days This is the law of the country this is mandatory We have 200 Taluks under drought but not a single rupee has been given funds for drought My Chief Minister and ministers all met the Prime Minister Home Minister and other Union Ministers requested all of them But nothing has been given the Congress leader saidWe are the second largest state after Maharashtra giving a lot of facilities In the last budget Nirmala Sitharaman herself admitted to give a lot of permission and a lot of financial support for the Bhadra Hydropower project 5300 cr In the budget that has been voted till now I am telling not a single rupee has been released to Karnataka there were so many cases we know what had been given to Maharashtra Andhra Pradesh and other states he addedKarnataka has been treated as stepmotherly we are fighting for our rights for our tax Only 13 per cent of whatever we are mandated from the centre we are given we are receiving Earlier when Manmohan Singhs government was there a lot of financial strength was given to Bengaluru because he felt that the world was looking at India through Bengaluru the KPCC president saidEarlier on Sunday in a pushback against allegations of fiscal bias against Congressruled Karnataka and nonprovision of funds Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said every penny due to the state is accounted for and was released on timeSpeaking at an informal interaction organised by the Thinkers Forum here in the Karnataka capital Sitharaman said The claim that Rs 5495 crore as a special grant was not released for Karnataka is totally false The Finance Commission in its final report did not recommend any such special grantsEarlier on Saturday Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that the state government has filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Centre to immediately release grants under the National Disaster Response Fund NDRF to the state which is witnessing droughtlike conditionsAddressing a press conference in Bengaluru Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said The Karnataka government had waited for a long time and now inevitably we state government have filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the Central government Centre should immediately release the NDRF fund Meanwhile former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai asked the Siddaramiahled Congress government in Karnataka to disclose details of the NDRF funds received during the UPA and NDA regimesSpeaking to reporters in Hubbali on Tuesday he said The states economic condition has become horrible due to which it moved the Supreme Court It was nothing but a political stunt Instead of complaining about the nonreceipt of funds from the central government the Congress leaders must furnish details of the NDRF funds received during the UPA and NDA governmentsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever