Addressing media persons at a news conference in Mangalore, Mr. Ugrappa lashed back at Mr. Modi over his allegations against the Congress led UPA government.
“He (Mr. Modi) had stated in Bangalore that to count the zeroes in the amount of corruption carried out by the UPA, one would have to measure a distance from the office of the Prime Minister to the office of Sonia Gandhi. I want to ask him as to whether he will choose to measure the distance between B S Yeddyurappa's residence and the residence of D V Sadananda Gowda or the distance between the office of the Karnataka chief minister to the RSS state office to count the number of zeroes in the Rs. 1 lakh crore corruption that the BJP government in the state has been involved in”, Mr. Ugrappa said.
Commenting on the state of affairs in Mr. Modi's own backyard, Mr. Ugrappa said that there is 48% malnutrition in Gujarat and contrary to his claim, there is supply of electricity on alternate weeks in the state. Mr. Modi's popularity is not upwardly mobile and is on the decline instead. “Why did the number of seats the BJP won come down in Gujarat this time?” Mr. Ugrappa asked.
'Cong will implement Lokayukta recommendations on mining scam'
Stating that a fact finding committee headed by him had brought out the issue of the state's wealth being looted by mining mafia as early as November 2008, Mr. Ugrappa said that even though the Lokayukta itself has submitted its final report in July 2011, no action has been taken by the BJP government yet.
“When my fact finding committee raised the issue of mining scam, all their leaders including their then national president Nitin Gadkari played it down and tried to brush it under the carpet. The Lokayukta then submitted a report and said that there has been a theft of the state's resources. It said that a revenue loss of Rs.1857 crore has been caused to the state exchequer. The Lokayukta report recommended that a total of Rs. 22,000 crore be recovered from the mining mafia culprits in three months' time but the BJP government did nothing. When we come to power, we will initiate the recovery proceedings and prosecute those whose prosecution has been recommended in the report”, Mr. Ugrappa said.
'Yeddyurappa will be Karnataka's Kalyan Singh'
Mr. Ugrappa said that Karnataka Janata Paksha chief B S Yeddyurappa will soon become Kalyan Singh of Karnataka.
“Mr. Yeddyurappa's public apology to L K Advani is an indication of this. I have a feeling that after the Assembly elections are over, the KJP and the BSR Congress parties will reunite with the BJP. People who have gone away will realize what their strength is and come back to the BJP. Hence, people will not vote for this coalition in this election. They will vote for a single strength party which is the Congress”, he said.
'No new cow slaughter law needed'
When asked about Congress leader Siddharamiah's remarks about the Congress withdrawing the cow slaughter bill proposed by the BJP after coming to power, Mr. Ugrappa said that the cow slaughter law of 1964 is already in force and there is no need for a separate law for the same.
“The BJP's bill on cow slaughter proposes action such as arrest of people in case beef is found in their houses. These are methods they derive to target a particular community. What is the need of a separate law when a cow slaughter law is already in place. The Supreme Court has already said that cows which are productive enough in terms of milk and farming, cannot be slaughtered and has specified an age after which they can be sold. As citizens of the country, we have to follow the guidelines of the Supreme Court. Besides, no farmer will sell his cow when it is productive and giving milk”, Mr. Ugrappa opined.
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