Daijiworld Media Network - Davangere (SP)

Davangere, Jun 27: Leader of the opposition in the assembly and former deputy chief minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday June 25, threatened to file  public interest litigation in the High Court against the state government, if the cabinet does not retract its decision to withdraw cases standing against Reddy brothers.

"A case, to be eligible for such a withdrawal, should have either been involved with a public interest issue or it should have been useful for the society. The government headed by Yeddyurappa has misused the power to save the seat of the Chief Minister and for serving the interests of a few," he thundered.

The government, which has been chanting its commitment to build Ram Mandir at Ayodhya, is trying to protect the mining barons, Reddy brothers, who detonated Suggalamma Devi temple standing on the state's border with Andhra Pradesh. This is only one of the numerous contradictory policies of the BJP government, he criticized.

"The state government has totally failed in utilizing various grants received from the union government including under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). While the funds released have remained stagnant in some of the districts, it has been misused in others," he alleged. Referring to the general complaint that the rate of wages prescribed under the scheme is low and that this has been responsible for under-performance under NREGS, Siddaramaiah said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has already been apprised of this problem. It might go up from Rs 60 a day to Rs 100. The central government has decided to distribute 25 kgs of rice per month at three rupees a kg to the poor people, he revealed.

He took the state government to task for its failure to collect taxes and hence emptying the treasury. The government has failed in power sector, drinking water schemes and distribution of ration cards. It has been coming out with false statements to hoodwink the people. "But we will not allow this to continue," he promised.

When his attention was drawn towards the withdrawal of cases standing against him and his supporters, Siddaramaiah said that the cases he was facing were frivolous in nature and had no substance in them. In the case of Reddy brothers, the cases were criminal in nature and the government was not empowered to withdraw them, he retorted.