Are you trying to make Karnataka a Cong-free state?: Poojary to CM

Mangaluru, Jun 3: Congress veteran B Janardhana Poojary, who is known for bashing his party colleagues in recent days, on Friday accused Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah of failing to fulfil the demands of policemen and government staff in the state.

Speaking at a press meet in the party office here, Mr Poojary went on to claim that the policies of Siddaramaiah led government were in fact weakening Congress in the state.

"Are you going to make Karnataka a Congress-free state in the next election? PM Modi has given a call to make the nation free from Congress. What difference between you and Modi," the former union minister questioned Siddaramaiah.

Mr Poojary said that the CM could have set up a committee to resolve the issues related to over 6.5 lakh government employees and policemen in the state. He pointed out that though the report of the Seventh Pay Commission is ready, Karnataka is yet to implement the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission fully.

"The protests by employees and policemen in the state indicate that the government is not ready to listen to their grievances. Salary of policemen is 50% lesser than their counterparts in Kerala. Women constables in Kerala get 50% more salary compared to Karnataka. This is despite the fact that our state is bigger than Kerala in all terms. Though Karnataka has a huge annual budget of Rs 1,70,000 crore, Siddaramaiah could not fulfill the demands of government employees and policemen. Solving their problems would cost the government an additional burden of only Rs 5,000 crore," Poojary said.

Further, he lambasted at Siddaramaiah for threatening policemen of invoking the provisions of the Essential Services Maintenance Act.

"The government has said that policemen will be arrested under ESMA if they participate in protest. I would say that it is an anti-national move. Is military rule prevailing in Karnataka? Is there a dictatorship in the state? Is your government a Hitler government? Have you read the Constitution of India? People have the right to form organisations and the Constitution has given freedom of speech and expression. They also have the right to hold protests," Poojary said and suggested the CM to read Directive Principles of State Policy.

Poojary also advised the CM to take employees into confidence by fulfilling their demands. "Hike their salary. They will ensure more inflow of revenue to the state exchequer by plugging revenue pilferage," he added.