Former Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai says government ‘disappointed people’

“There is a lot of difference in the promises made by the Congress government and the announcements made by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah after the first Cabinet. People had expected a lot of announcements and immediate implementation. Some of the women started traveling free on the buses. Today’s announcements have disappointed the people,” Bommai told ANI after addressing a press briefing here.

Earlier, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that the new Cabinet has issued orders for the implementation of five guarantees, promised by the Congress during its election campaign.

“Five guarantees in the manifesto were promised and the order for the implementation of those five guarantees was given after the first cabinet meeting. All will be in force after the next cabinet meeting which will be called within a week,” Siddaramaiah said after the first Cabinet meeting in Vidhan Soudha.

The five ‘main’ guarantees are 200 units of free power to all households (Gruha Jyoti); ₹2,000 monthly assistance to the woman head of every family (Gruha Lakshmi); 10 kg of rice free to every member of a BPL household (Anna Bhagya); ₹3,000 every month for unemployed graduate youth and ₹1,500 for unemployed diploma holders (both in the age group of 18-25) for two years (Yuva Nidhi) and free travel for women in public transport buses (Uchita Prayana).

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah also lashed out at the previous government of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and called them “useless”. “Government which was ruling earlier was useless. They couldn’t get us the share of taxes properly. The Centre has to give us ₹5,495 crores as per the finance commission recommendation,” he said.

The Karnataka Legislative Assembly session is to be held on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, next week.