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Congress pressure led to cut in GST rates: Siddaramaiah

DHNS
November 20, 2017

Bengaluru, Nov 20: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday said the Congress deserved credit for the reduction in GST rates, saying it was done after the party staged nationwide protests against the high rates.

Speaking at the birth centenary of former prime minister Indira Gandhi at the KPCC office, Siddaramaiah took on the opposition BJP for mocking the state government's mid-year review of the state's finances that had allayed fears of an economic slowdown due to GST.

BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa had pointed out that the government strayed from the Congress stand on GST that it was Gabbar Singh Tax. "The GST was a UPA reform and we played a role in the reduction of tax rates," Siddaramaiah said.

"The BJP is concentrating on making Karnataka Congress-free, but we are focusing on making the state hunger-free," Siddaramaiah said, referring to the Indira Canteens. He also took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "Indira Gandhi opened the doors of the banks for the poor by nationalising them. Modi closed the doors of banks for the poor through demonetisation."

KPCC president G Parameshwara said BJP leaders Ananthkumar Hegde (Union minister), K S Eshwarappa, Yeddyurappa and Shobha Karandlaje were "unfit" to be politicians. "The BJP is desperate. That's why even a Union minister is indulging in loose talk," he said. He was referring to Hegde's comment that the ruling Congress, which recently celebrated the birth anniversary of Tipu Sultan, would go to the extent of celebrating the Jayanti of Mumbai terror attack convict Ajmal Kasab.

Parameshwara said the party celebrated Indira Gandhi's birth centenary by lighting 100 candles in every district.

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News Network
April 22,2020

Mangaluru, Apr 22: A team of officials raided the Big Bags International Pvt Ltd premises here on Tuesday following the apprehensions expressed by locals that the company has violated lockdown rules by resuming operations on April 20.

On Monday several workers of the firm from Kerala, Tumakuru and Bengaluru were reported to be at the premises to resume operations.

The raiding team asked the management to temporarily shut down operations and asked the workers to leave the place.

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News Network
July 31,2020

Bengaluru, Jul 31: The Karnataka government on Wednesday put on hold a controversial proposal to drop certain chapters, including on Islam, Christianity, Tipu Sultan and his father Hyder Ali, from social science textbooks to reduce the 2020-21 syllabi for students in classes 1-10.

Citing the COVID-19 pandemic and the disruption caused to the academic calendar of the year, the government had earlier dropped the chapter on Tipu Sultan and Hyder Ali from the Class 7 social science textbook, saying chapters on Tipu Sultan have been retained in the Class 6 and 10 textbooks.

The move did not go down well with the opposition, which saw certain ulterior motives behind the decision.

Apparently under sharp criticism, the Department of Public Instruction issued a new notification on Wednesday "on the directions of the Karnataka Primary and Secondary Education Minister S Suresh Kumar".

There is a delay in opening the schools during the academic year 2020-21 due to COVID-19 pandemic, said the latest order.

In this context, the order said, chapters were dropped to fit in 120 days of the academic year for classes 1 to 10 and the same was published in the department's website.

"However, on the directions of the Minister for Primary and Secondary Education, the decision to drop certain chapters has been put on hold. A review will be done following which the deleted chapters will be uploaded in the website," the order read.

Earlier in the day, Mr Kumar had issued a statement, saying that the decision to truncate the syllabus has not been finalised yet. He also made it clear that his department would not remove chapters unnecessarily.

Former chief minister and Congress leader Siddaramaiah had attacked the government on the issue.

"The government, which has failed to control the spread of coronavirus, is using it as an opportunity to push its clandestine agenda of saffronising the textbooks," Siddaramaiah tweeted.

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News Network
July 23,2020

Bengaluru, Jul 23: The opposition party Congress on Thursday demanded a judicial enquiry in the alleged scam in coronavirus related medical equipment procurement by Karnataka government.

However, Deputy chief minister Ashwathnarayan and Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai denied all the allegations.

Leader of Opposition (LoP) and former Chief Minister of Karnataka Siddaramaiah and Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar addressed a press conference here and demanded a judiciary enquiry under a sitting High Court judge to investigate "BJP's Corona Scams."

"I made allegations on July 3. Nobody has denied it officially. On July 20, Karnataka Health Minister B Sriramulu and Deputy Chief Minister Ashwathnarayan in a press conference denied my allegations. Today, I furnished 14 documents. If you go through it, you will find corruption and misappropriation in medical equipment purchase," Siddaramaiah said.

"The documents are available with the government, how can they deny their own documents. They are telling that they have spent only Rs 324 crore but according to me the government has spent more than Rs 4,000 crore and nearly Rs 2,000 crore went in the minister and bureaucrats' pockets," he said.

He further said, "Centre has procured 50,000 ventilators under PM Cares at a cost of Rs 4, lakh per unit. Tamil Nadu has procured at Rs 4.78 lakh. But in our state, the price is between Rs 5.6 lakh to Rs 18.2 lakh. Is this not corruption?"

Siddaramaiah also dared the government to step up for an enquiry if they are "honest and transparent".

"I am demanding, constitute a judicial committee headed by sitting high court judge, let there be an enquiry in detail," he said.

DK Shivakumar said that his party has made the allegations based on government documents and media reports showing corruption.

"Karnataka government is purchasing equipment at high rates. We have exposed BJP's Rs 2,000 crore scams today. The government's main focus is to loot. They have paralysed the state administration," he said.
Denying the Congress' allegations, Deputy Chief Minister, Ashwathnarayan said that the government is ready to discuss this in the Assembly house.

"They have alleged Rs 700 crore misappropriation by health department but we have shown we have spent only Rs 290 crore," he said.

Giving details of the SDRF expenditure towards COVID-19 containment he said, "We have released Rs. 23,220.01 lakh in SDRF accounts and they have spent Rs Rs. 15, 918.99 lakh in various activities like migrant relief measures, measures for quarantine, sample collection, screening from March 14 to July 16."

Karnataka Home Minister, Basavaraj Bommai, said, "Karnataka government has spent Rs 506 crores for medical equipment and Rs 1,611 crores for other activities related to combatting COVID-19. So, we have spent Rs 2,117 crores as of now and there is no corruption in it."

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