Madhugiri (K'taka) (PTI): Accusing the Centre of being anti-poor and pro-capitalists, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday asked people to ensure that not a single vote goes to the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections next year.
Calling the BJP neech' (despicable), he said the ruling party at the Centre is also anti-humanity, as it denied supply of rice to Karnataka to supply additional five kg rice to each beneficiary under the Anna Bhagya scheme of the state government.
"When I was the CM during my previous tenure, I was giving seven kg rice free but the previous BJP government reduced it to four kg and five kg. During the assembly election, I promised that we will give an additional five kg more," Siddaramaiah said during a ceremony to celebrate the completion of 10 years of Ksheera Bhagya scheme (under which students of government and aided schools are given milk five days a week) at Madhugiri in Tumakuru district.
The chief minister said that when the Congress government came to power, it wrote to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to supply rice for the Anna Bhagya scheme. The FCI too assured the state government that it provide the rice, he said.
"We trust them (FCI) but the Centre denied us rice. Is BJP pro-poor? They are not. We did not ask rice for free. We were ready to pay for it. When we asked for rice, they agreed and then backtracked. You have to decide how neech' (despicable) they are. They are anti-poor. They don't have humanity," Siddaramaiah charged.
Explaining the reason behind the Centre backtracking from supplying rice to Karnataka, the chief minister said, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that if free rice is given to the poor people, those states will go bankrupt. We told him that we will implement the five guarantees and we will not let the state go bankrupt."
The CM also explained that out of the five poll guarantees, four have been implemented in the state. They are 'Shakti' offering free bus rides to women in non-luxury government buses, 'Gruha Lakshmi' providing Rs 2,000 to the women head of families, 'Gruha Jyothi' promising up to 200 units of free electricity to each household and 'Anna Bhagya' offering 10 kg rice to BPL families.
Explaining the five guarantees, Siddaramaiah asked people if they would vote for the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections. "Not a single vote should go to them (BJP) because they had said these schemes will make the state bankrupt. If we give freebies to the poor, then the state will go bankrupt? What if the money is given to Ambani and Adani? Will the country or poor prosper?" he sought to know.
Siddaramaiah stressed that while Ambani and Adani grew rich, the poor remained poor.
Celebrating the completion of 10 years of the 'Ksheera Bhagya' scheme offering milk to 54.68 lakh government school children everyday, the chief minister said it is an internationally acclaimed scheme.
According to him, milk is a complete food with maximum calcium and people of every age can drink it. Hence, the government decided to purchase milk from milk producers and give it to the children, he said.
Lauding 'Ksheera Bhagya', Siddaramaiah said the state government will spend more than Rs 1,000 crore on the scheme.
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Ranchi (PTI): A 25-year-old man, who works as a butcher, allegedly strangled to death his live-in partner and chopped her body into 40 to 50 pieces in a forested area in Jharkhand’s Khunti district, police said on Wednesday.
The accused, identified as Naresh Bhengra, was arrested.
The matter came to light after around a fortnight after the killing when a stray dog was found with human body parts near Jordag village in Jariagarh police station on November 24.
Bhengra was in a live-in relationship with the deceased, a 24-year-old woman also from Khunti district, in Tamil Nadu for the past couple of years. Sometime back, he returned to Jharkhand, got married to another woman without telling his partner anything and went back to the southern state without his wife to join her.
"The brutal incident occurred on November 8 when they reached Khunti as the accused who had married another woman did not wish to take her home. Instead, he took her to a forest near his house at Jordag village in Jariagarh police station and chopped the body into pieces. The man has been arrested," Khunti Superintendent of Police Aman Kumar told PTI.
Inspector Ashok Singh who investigated the case said the man worked in a butcher shop in Tamil Nadu and was expert in slicing chicken.
“He admitted chopping the body parts of the woman into 40 to 50 pieces before leaving those in the forest for wild animals to feast on. The police recovered several parts on November 24 after a dog in the area was seen with a hand," Singh told PTI.
Singh said that the woman, who was unaware of his marriage, pressured him to return to Khunti. After reaching Ranchi, they boarded a train on November 24 and headed to the man's village.
"Under a plan, the man took her to Khunti in an autorickshaw near his home and asked her to wait. He returned with sharp weapons and strangulated her with her dupatta after raping her. He then cut the body into 40 to 50 pieces and left for his home to live with his wife," Singh said.
The woman, however, had informed her mother that she had boarded a train and would be living with her partner, the police officer said.
Following the recovery of body parts, a bag was also found in the forest with the murdered woman's belongings including her Aadhaar card. The mother of the woman was called at the spot and she identified her daughter's belongings.
"The mother suspected the man behind the crime who after being nabbed by the police admitted to chopping the woman into pieces," the official added.
The incident has sent shockwaves among people in the region, with the Shraddha Walker murder case of 2022 still fresh in their memory.
Walker was killed by her live-in partner who chopped her body into pieces before dumping them in the jungle in South Delhi’s Mehrauli.