Shivakumar hits back at Kumaraswamy over guarantees

Bengaluru, NT Bureau: Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar on Sunday hit back against JD(S) state president H D Kumaraswamy for suggesting that the guarantees had not been properly implemented.

The JD(S) leader had called upon voters in the five poll-bound states to not vote for Congress since it had allegedly not implemented guarantees in Karnataka that it was touting elsewhere.

The five guarantees include Gruha Jyoti Yojane which gives 200 units of electricity to every household, Gruha Lakshmi Yojane under which Rs 2,000 would is wired every month to “woman head of every household” and the Anna Bhagya scheme’s new avatar that gives 10 kgs of rice monthly to Below Poverty Line (BPL) card holders.

The other two guarantees are free government bus travel for women under the Shakti scheme and Yuva Nidhi Yojana, which promises Rs3,000 monthly allowance for unemployed graduates and Rs1,500 for diploma holders belonging to the 2022-23 academic year.

The latter is the only guarantee that hasn’t been implemented yet. Shivakumar claimed that the guarantees were being enjoyed by beneficiaries in Kumaraswamy's own constituency, Channapatna.

“What does Kumaraswamy know about our guarantees? Ask him about his own Pancha Ratna scheme. He could not implement it. Ask voters if our guarantees are missing or properly implemented. I have spoken to some 25 people from Channapatna over the phone, regardless of whether they voted for BJP, Dala (JD(S) or Congress. I know how many people have missed out and who hasn’t. Let him ask the people of his constituency and he’ll learn the reality,” Shivakumar told mediapersons.

He added that some five per cent had missed out on the guarantees due to issues with documents but the same would be set right soon.