Farmer suicides: BJP dubs Congress rule in Karnataka as 'utter failure'

Also criticised the Siddaramaiah govt for the 'deteriorating law and order' situation in the state

Terming the four-year rule of the Congress government in Karnataka an "utter failure", opposition BJP on Thursday slammed Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for not mitigating the farmers' hardships in the drought-hit state.

"The Congress government in the state, which completes four years on Friday, has failed on all fronts, especially in mitigating the hardships of the drought-hit farmers across the state," Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s state President B SYeddyurappa told reporters in Bengaluru.

Listing 29 failures of the government in a charge-sheet, BJP's opposition leader in the assembly Jagadish Shettar said the state machinery had also failed to fully implement the various welfare schemes for the benefit of the people.

"Although the government had allocated Rs 41,439 crore for the irrigation projects, it released only Rs 32,326 crore for those over the last four years," charged Shettar.

The charge-sheet also blamed the government for farmers' suicides in the state.

"Karnataka is the second state in the country in terms of suicides by farmers, as 2,573 of them took their lives due to crop failure and inability to repay loans availed from money lenders and banks," lamented Shettar.

Citing a recent survey by the Delhi-based Centre for Media Studies, which found Karnataka to be the "most corrupt state" in the country, Yeddyurappa said the Chief Minister had no control on his corrupt ministers and officials.

"Siddaramaiah went on a march from Bengaluru to Ballari in July 2010 when he was the opposition leader, promising transparency in governance if his party was elected to power. He did nothing to prevent or stop it in the last four years," recalled Yeddyurappa, the BJP's first Chief Minister in the state from 2008-11.

Ballari is 310 km in the state's northern region from Bengaluru.

The BJP also criticised the Siddaramaiah government for the "deteriorating law and order" situation in the state.

"In Bengaluru alone, 1,24,655 criminal cases were registered during the last four years. Women are not safe in the city, as evident from 10,589 incidents of sexual harassment, murder, robbery, chain-snatching and dowry harassment against them during the Congress rule," asserted Shettar.