New poll promise, Siddaramaiah announces Rs 20 lakh low-interest loan to Karnataka farmers

TUMAKURU:  After Congress promised 200 units of free electricity and Rs 2,000 per month to every woman head of a family if voted to power, Congress Legislature Party leader Siddaramaiah sprang a surprise here on Tuesday, promising a Rs 20 lakh loan to every farmer at 3 per cent interest.

“The short-term crop loan of Rs 3 lakh at zero per cent interest from government’s cooperative banks will be increased to Rs 5 lakh and the Rs 10 lakh long-term loan at 3 per cent rate of interest will be hiked to Rs 20 lakh,” he declared at the Praja Dhwani Yatra. AICC General Secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala hinted that the party will keep announcing such poll guarantee schemes ahead of the polls.

Justifying the schemes, he said, “We can save Rs 7,000 crore if we put an end to 40 per cent commission in the government.” Siddaramaiah targeted JDS senior leader HD Kumarawamy for attacking Surjewala, who had called the regional party the B-team of BJP. “BJP hates Muslims openly, while JDS does it behind the scenes.

I appeal to people of the community that they should not trust JDS. In 2006, Kumaraswamy toppled the N Dharam Singh-led Congress- JDS alliance government and formed the coalition government with the communal BJP,” he said. He said Congress indeed went to the doorstep of JDS to make Kumaraswamy the chief minister not thinking that he was a good man, but to keep BJP at bay. He challenged Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to constitute a committee headed by a Supreme Court judge to investigate all the scandals during BJP as well as Congress governments.