Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said it was condemnable that the Center had submitted false information to the Supreme Court to deceive the state on its due drought relief.
“Our government was forced to seek justice from the Supreme Court due to the continuous delay by the Central Government in providing proper drought relief to Karnataka,” the Chief Minister said in a press release. But during the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta cited political motives behind this and argued that the Karnataka government should be blamed for the delay in drought relief. This is extremely condemnable.
“They (Karnataka) could have talked to us (Centre) for drought relief. We can see the timing of such petitions,” the Solicitor General said. The Chief Minister claimed that he tried to put the blame on the Karnataka government to hide the Centre’s failures. He said, “As I have said repeatedly in the last 2-3 months, our government has taken over the Union government in September 2023. A memorandum was submitted to the CBI, giving details of the loss and expected relief amount.
After this, I along with Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi and appealed for relief. Said, “Our Deputy Chief Minister (D.K. Shivakumar) had met the Union Finance Minister separately. Despite this, the Finance Minister and the Home Minister falsely claimed that the Karnataka government was late in submitting its request. And today, the Center repeated this lie to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court took the matter into consideration after taking into account the Solicitor General’s statements. The hearing of the case was postponed for two weeks. Siddaramaiah said, “Our fight against the injustice of the Center will continue not only on the streets but also in the courts. We will expose the lies of the Central government one by one and protect the people of the state.” Will expose his real face.
