Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah rubbishes Amit Shah's statements on central funding

SHRAVANABELAGOLA: Chief minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday said that BJP National President Amit Shah’s remarks over the allocation of funds for Karnataka were politically motivated.

Accusing Shah of ‘hit and run’ comments, Siddaramaiah said that Shah should research statistics about mobilisation and allocation of funds by the Finance commission for different states before commenting.

Siddharamaiah was in town here to review development works being taken up ahead of the Mahamastakabhisheka event.

Repeating his earlier stance that allotment of grants from the Central government to states was mandatory, the chief minister said that these funds were provided based on the finance commission’s guidelines and should not be viewed as a donation by the Centre. According to figures quoted by him, Rs. 1.85 lakh crore had been released for Karnataka in 2015 and Rs 95.5 lakh crore in three years. There is a shortfall of 11 thousand crore when compared to regular grants he said, asking Shah to state specifically which funds received by Karnataka had not been spent by the state.

On the issue of the Karnataka Private Medical Establishments Act, Siddaramaiah said that the amendment was necessary to curb alleged extraction of financially weak patients by private hospitals. The amendments will come up for discussion in the next assembly session.

Siddaramaiah also criticised former chief minister BS Yeddyurappa and said that the BJP leader had a habit of airing false statements against the government.