Bengaluru, May 12: Former chief minister and senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Tuesday said that the Central and Karnataka government have failed in containing the coronavirus spread despite having enough time for preparations.
"Central and state government failed in properly controlling COVID-19. The first coronavirus case was reported in Kerala on January 30. Lockdown was imposed on March 24. Both Centre and state had enough time for preparations," Siddaramaiah said in a press meet here.
He said that the Central government did not stop the airline services on time.
"Karnataka government might have been able to stop COVID-19 properly. However, both the state and central government are playing politics over the issue and blaming Tablighi Jamaat for the spread, which is a political strategy painted by the RSS," Siddaramaiah said.
"Who gave the licence to Tablighi's international convention? Who gave them permission in Delhi? They didn't control it. Central government is directly responsible for the increasing numbers of COVID-19 cases in India," he added.
Siddaramaiah said that the lockdown was imposed without any preparation, which he said caused huge problems for the migrant workers across the country.
"Now, the government is collecting ticket fare and looting migrant workers. They don't have jobs or food, they don't have money, and they earn every day to survive. How will they pay for the tickets? Why the government is not arranging for free trains?" the Congress leader said.
He said that around Rs 35,000 crore have been credited to PM CARES fund, Rs 3,000 crore of which was credited from Karnataka alone. "Why are they not using that money?" he asked.
Siddaramaiah said that the party is demanding for the Centre to arrange for migrant workers to return to their native places across the country free of cost.
"We asked Chief Minister to call an all party meeting. We gave many suggestions, which this government did not consider. We also took a delegation and gave a memorandum about farmers, daily wage workers, road side vendors, barbers, problems faced by the unorganized sector. But this government didn't consider any of it," he said.
Questioning the Central government's suggestion to States to amend their Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Acts, Siddaramaiah said that the move is against the federal system of the country and claimed that it harms the interests of small scale farmers.
He said that the BJP-led state government has also decided to postpone the Gram panchayat elections in the state and is trying to nominate their party workers for village panchayat elections.
"The Government must continue with the present members of the Gram panchayat. If BJP tries to nominate their party members to village panchayats, we will take to streets to protest despite the lockdown," Siddaramaiah added.
Comments
Sure he will pay for such barbaric henious act, just a matter of wait and watch.
Retaliate kill him and supportng RSS leader in same manner.
Uncultured barbarian act...!! Culprit should be hanged in order to put end to these ruthless act.
Shourya diwas part 2 by VHP? India is becoming famous in negative sense day by day, all credit to right extremist hindu groups!
Give them more power, we will become next Taliban, Nazi!!!
That whole area of Indian subcontinent (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka etc) is still pretty much brutally primitive. Not only that they have not achieved much in materialistic standards in seven decades of independance but in terms of behavior also, the people on the ubcontinent have remained to be quite primitive !
RSS should be happy today, as one of their cadre has done them proud. RSS has made animals out of humans. This is what RSS wants in India. Great. Bharat Mata ki Ja
Love jihad is a very dangerous practice which is now spreading in whole of India. Though the murder of a lab on the name of love jihad in Rajasthan can not be justified but those responsible for this practice must be identified and sent in jail with exemplary punishment.
Check the original video. The cries of the poor helpless man are still haunting me. How can somebody be so ruthless? Comparing this scumbag to an animal is an insult to whole of animals. As lynching was a common phenomenon by the so-called fully tolerant, totally peace loving Hindus, I felt perhaps it should be the work of few uncivilized religious bigots. Now I wonder the difference between Hindus and the other peace loving religion. If Hindus have muscle power, money power, position and the required resources, they can be one of worst sects or an ideal competitor for the other peace loving religion in this world.
@Bhageeraha Bhaira,
What you said is applicable to all. Many so called "peace lovers" killed poor peopel.
Many Hindus got killed by muslim terrorists. Then no news.
Mr Kumar! Killing is not intolerance. This is terrorism. The word ‘Intolerance’ can be used if someone doesn’t tolerate the smell of your body.
Intolerance... Attack on muslims increasing
Shocking incident
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