Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah plans major event in Hosapete

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday said that about three lakh people are expected to attend the event organised at Hosapete in Vijayanagara district on May 20, to mark two years of the Congress government in power.

Speaking to reporters here, he said that during the event, one lakh title deeds will be distributed to eligible beneficiaries whose “undocumented habitations” have been declared revenue villages, and there will be programmes by various other departments as well.

“We will try to present our achievements of the last two years to the people,” he added.

Both the Chief Minister and Deputy CM D K Shivakumar had earlier indicated that Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge would attend the event.

Hitting out at the opposition BJP for its criticism regarding the Greater Bengaluru Governance Act—which allows the creation of up to seven municipal corporations to manage Bengaluru city and came into effect on May 15—Siddaramaiah said that as Bengaluru is “unwieldy,” it was BJP that had decided to divide the Bengaluru municipal corporation when Suresh Kumar was the Urban Development Minister.

“After I first became CM, since Bengaluru is unwieldy—the city today has a population of 1.5 crore, and it is difficult to manage such a huge population through one corporation with one commissioner—for administrative purposes, I formed a committee to create three or more municipal corporations in the city. After returning to power, we (the Congress government) have continued this process,” he said.

The Act allows for the creation of up to seven municipal corporations to manage the city, and there are indications that the government may decide to form three corporations after deliberations.

Responding to a question, Siddaramaiah asserted that the Congress will win the Gangavati bypoll whenever it is held.

The seat fell vacant following the disqualification of G Janardhana Reddy as a member of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, after a special CBI court in Hyderabad convicted him in the Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC) illegal iron ore mining case.

“The candidate will be decided by the Congress party; the winnable candidate will be given the ticket,” he said.

Reddy had formed the Kalyana Rajya Pragati Paksha (KRPP) ahead of the 2023 Assembly polls, breaking his two-decade-old association with the BJP, and won the Gangavati assembly seat. However, he rejoined the BJP ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls by merging his outfit with the saffron party.

Clarifying that there is no shortage of funds for any of his government’s five guarantee schemes (Gruha Lakshmi, Shakti, Gruha Jyothi, Anna Bhagya and Yuva Nidhi), Siddaramaiah said, “Last year, I had allocated Rs 52,009 crore in the budget for this, and this year, I have allocated Rs 50,018 crore. There is no shortage of funds.”