Amid talk of discontent within the ruling Congress in Karnataka, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah Thursday held a legislature party meeting in which MLAs urged him to release funds for development work in their respective constituencies. After the meeting, Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy said: “There is no disgruntlement. All MLAs are happy. There was just one demand, which is to release funds for MLAs as soon as possible. Apart from that, there was nothing,” he told reporters. The meeting came amid reports that as many as 30 legislators have written to Siddaramaiah and party leadership expressing concern over non-implementation of development work in their constituencies. On Wednesday, Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said development work would take a backseat this year as the state government has used most of its resources on guarantee schemes. He had urged legislators to be patient. Reddy on Thursday dismissed the letter by the legislators, including Congress MLA B R Patil, as a “creation of the media”. “BJP created it and the media gave it publicity,” Reddy said. Patil, too, distanced himself from the letter containing the allegations. He claimed that it was being circulated by BJP to sow differences within the Congress. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who spoke at the meeting, warned MLAs to be wary of the “factory of lies” of the BJP. “They manufacture a lie first and then spread it. At the end, they make sure that the lies are discussed in the media,” he said. “BJP is feeling threatened due to the support for guarantee schemes. To divert the attention of the people, they create lies and fake videos. A fake letter in the name of a MLA is part of this conspiracy. Sadly, before anyone learns what the truth is, they would have spread lies everywhere,” he added. PTI reported, citing Congress sources, that while legislators shared their concerns regarding development work and the alleged non-cooperation of ministers among other issues in the meeting, ministers stated their administrative position in this regard. In the cabinet meeting held earlier this evening too, ministers were said to have clarified their position to the Chief Minister, especially with respect to transfers, PTI reported. Both Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar have been maintaining that there is no dissension in the party and that the MLAs’ letters they received were with a request to call a CLP meeting, and not to complain. Listing out the responsibilities that were in front of him and his government on coming to power like bringing the economy back on track, calling a joint session, Siddaramaiah said, this budget was very important, as it was estimated that Rs 58,000 crore would be required to implement the five guarantees annually. "Thus, for the preparation of this budget very carefully, as it was also necessary to set aside funds for five guarantees. It was inevitable for me to personally get involved in the preparation of the budget. Due to all these reasons, I could not pay attention to other things," he was quoted as saying by his office in a statement. He also cited the meeting of leaders of opposition parties (INDIA) in Bengaluru and Congress leadership's plans to meet the legislators after that, as the reasons for delay in calling the CLP meeting.- With PTI inputs
