Siddaramaiah blames Centre for spike in Covid cases

Bengaluru: In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah accused the Central government of being a catalyst in Covid cases' spike by allowing Kumbh Mela and continuing with the election rallies.

"It is unfortunate that the Central government is doing very little to ease the stress and did not plan beforehand even when the Parliamentary Committee had warned of a serious second wave. There is also an urgent necessity to address the ongoing health emergency in the country. People are dying without adequate healthcare facilities like beds, ventilators, medical oxygen, and life-saving drugs like Remdesiver. The demand is 35-40 times more than what is being allocated to Karnataka. The Central government is conveniently abdicating its responsibilities and transferring the burden on the States," the letter read.

The senior Congress leader and former CM stated that at times of health emergency, the States cannot compete against each other in procurement. Siddaramaiah reiterated that Karnataka has been facing financial crisis since NDA came to power in 2014.

"Financial status of Karnataka is further impacted due to step-motherly treatment of Bharatiya Janata Party and it is unfortunate that BJP MPs from Karnataka are more interested in appeasing Central leadership than fighting for the cause of Kannadigas. Karnataka contributes more than 2.5 lakh crore in the form of various taxes to the Centre but only Rs. 21,694 Cr was given to the State this year from the share of taxes. In the interest of the people of Karnataka, I strongly demand that the Central government release more funds and allocate necessary infrastructure immediately to address the crisis in Karnataka," an excerpt of the letter read.

The former chief minister expressed his apprehension about success of vaccination for all above 18 years of age if there is difference in purchase price of vaccines for Central government, State governments and private hospitals. "Central government is procuring Covishield vaccine at Rs.150 but State governments have to pay Rs. 400 and private hospitals Rs 600. The government is permitting immoral profiteering from the crisis. This also raises doubts over the commitment made by the Government of India in their budget to allocate Rs. 35,000 crore to vaccinate people," Siddaramaiah said adding that the Centre should become the sole procurer of the vaccines and distribute it to the States at free of cost.

The former CM apprised the PM of the ramifications of the Statewide lockdown as the State government has failed to address the livelihood concerns.

"Many daily wage labourers, auto drivers, barbers, and many others will become jobless. It is essential to provide 10 kg free rice to each person for six months and a financial assistance of Rs 10,000 to each family below povertyline. It is also necessary to expand MNREGA work on demand basis and increase the wages across the country so that workers returning from cities have sufficient access to income opportunities. There will also be huge dependency on agriculture and hence the government should reduce the prices of fertilizers to make agriculture economically viable," he suggested.

Siddaramaiah stated that the Congress will always co-operate with the government to tide over the crisis and criticising the failure of the government is as important as recommending the measures for the betterment of the country.