Congress creating confusion among Muslim over CAA, claims BSY

Bengaluru, Jun 18: Former Karnataka Chief Minister and Congress leader Siddaramaiah has accused the BJP-led government of not passing the benefit of the low price of crude to the common man and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take steps to bring down prices of petroleum products.

Hitting out at the BJP-led government, he termed it as "opportunistic" and said the price of petroleum products were being increased when people were facing difficulties due to COVID-19.

"It is very disheartening to witness and unprecedented opportunistic government which is trying to extract every pound and flesh from the common man, that too when the whole country is suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic. This is in the backdrop of the continuous price hike in the last 10 days," said the letter was written on Wednesday.

The Congress leader said that the policy decisions taken by the government "with respect to managing fuel sources are inconsistent with the prudent measures generally adopted".

"When the price of crude oil was remarkably low in March, April and May 2020, your government was very reluctant to pass on the benefits to the people by reducing the fuel prices proportionately, but, instead, your government continued to capitalise by increasing the excise duty," he said.

He said the government had also "failed" in the last six years to increase the oil storage capacity which could have been used for the country's advantage when the international crude oil price fell really low.

He said the government should roll back the excise duty and help in the reduction of fuel prices.

"The reduced burden will help the common man to have additional money in hand that will be spent on essential goods and services which will ultimately help them tide over these difficult times," he said.

Mangaluru, June 11: The private flight chartered by Saudi Arabia's SAQCO Contracting Company to repatriate coastal Kannadigas stranded in the kingdom landed at Mangaluru International Airport at 1:15 am on Wednesday.

The flight with 175 passengers took off from the Dammam International Airport around 6 pm (KSA time).

SAQCO’s Directors Althaf Ullal and Basheer Sagar said that all the legal procedures were carried out smoothly before the flight took off from Dammam for Mangaluru.

The duo also informed that no staff or official of SAQCO were traveling on the chartered flight and that it was arranged only for the stranded Kannadigas. The cost of traveling, institutional quarantine, and COVID-19 tests will be borne by the SAQCO Company.

SAQCO had established a desk to finalize the list of passengers who will be traveling on the flight to Mangaluru on Wednesday. The company added priority was given to pregnant women, the senior citizens who had come to the kingdom on visit visas, people with medical emergencies, people who had lost jobs, and those who had reported deaths in their families.

Bengaluru, Jan 3: Former Karnataka chief minister and Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Friday criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that 90 per cent of the promises made by him remain unfulfilled.

"He (Prime Minister Modi) had promised that in 2020 the economy will be doubled, but only their troubles have doubled. He just lied. 90 per cent of the promises made by Modi have remained unfulfilled," Siddaramaiah told media here.

Siddaramaiah's remarks come at a time when Prime Minister Modi is on a two-day visit to the state.

"In August, there was severe flood in state, he didn't visit Karnataka at that time. Flood situation was in 23 districts. Prime Minister will tweet for small issues. But at the time of severe flood he didn't even tweet. In 2009, Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister. He did aerial survey of the state and announced Rs 1500 crore relief on spot," Siddaramaiah said.

"This time the estimated damage due to flood is more than Rs 1 lakh crores," he said.

He went on to say, "Prime Minister came to witness Chandrayaan-2. He did not give time to Chief Minister and ministers and opposition party to meet him and discuss about floods."

"When I was the Chief Minister, the Prime Minister visited the state two times. Prime Minister had told at the time of inauguration of food park that there will be 10,000 direct employment and 25,000 employment. But nothing has happened till now," Siddaramaiah said.

Besides the Prime Minister, Siddaramaiah also criticised Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa.

"In last election, Prime Minister had told that, if BJP comes to power in Centre and state, there will be development. But nothing has happened. Chief Minister and ministers should have spoken to the Prime Minister about relief funds. The central government should have announced it as National disaster... That's why I called BS Yediyurappa as weak Chief Minister," Siddaramaiah said.

"He had said if BJP is in power at the centre and state, doors of fortune of the state will be opened. People trusted him and gave 25 seats in Lok Sabha elections. But now, he doesn't even open the doors of his house for his party leaders," he said.

Congress leader further cornered the Prime Minister over his address in Tumkuru Mutt on Thursday and said, "We admit Pakistan is an evil country. But what are you doing about minorities in our country? You are bringing law against the minorities. Is that right? And you give speech about these things in front of young children."

Prime Minister Modi is on a two-day visit to Karnataka and is attending several events as part of his official engagements.