BJP demands ‘white paper’ on fin position in Karnataka

Bengaluru: Opposition BJP on Tuesday demanded that Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy come out with a "white paper" on the state's financial position before presenting the budget on July 5. 

BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa also hit out at the Congress-JD(S) coalition terming it as an "unholy alliance" for the sake of power and said there was confusion among people about who the chief minister is. 

"I want to tell the chief minister that before presenting the budget, present a whitepaper on the financial situation of the state," Yeddyurappa said.  He was speaking on the motion of thanks to the Governor for his address in the assembly. Yeddyurappa said the state had loans worth about Rs 2.38 lakh crore. 

"What steps have been taken to pay back this? There are also pending bills of about Rs 10,000 crore in PWD and Irrigation." He alleged that with an illusion of coming back to power, former chief minister Siddaramiah during the end of his government's tenure went on a foundation laying spree, which is worth about thousands of crores of rupees. 

Alleging that dues were pending for several of the flagship programmes of the previous government, Yeddyurappa said he and his party would wait until the budget to see whether the chief minister would fulfil his pre-budget promise of farm loan waiver worth about Rs 53,000 crore.