Difficult to get funds for development works because of guarantees, says CM's economic advisor
Bengaluru, Jul 12: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's economic advisor Basavaraj Rayareddi has said that huge allocations to the five guarantees of the state government have made it difficult to get funds for developmental works.
The Congress MLA from Yelburga in Koppal district was speaking at a farmers’ meeting after launching work at a lake at Mangaluru village in his Assembly segment.
"The Chief Minister has made me his economic advisor, and as I interact with him daily, this money has come (for the lake project), or else it wouldn't have come...impossible. This is the only work that is happening in the entire state, because guarantees will itself finish things... Rs 60,000-Rs 65,000 crore we have to spend for it (guarantees). I know how difficult it is, internal finance" Rayareddi said.
Opposition BJP and JD(S) have been accusing the Congress government in the state of not taking up any developmental works, because of the large spending to fulfil the guarantees promised by the party during the Assembly elections.
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Reacting to Rayareddi's claims, Deputy Chief Minister and state Congress President D K Shivakumar has said "there are no difficulties, we are streamlining. We have fulfilled our promises. We will continue the guarantee schemes...."
"..we did not bring in guarantee schemes for votes, it was with an intention to improve the quality of lives of the people, who were suffering with price rise. We are confident that people will cooperate with us," Shivakumar said.
Siddaramaiah has set aside Rs 52,009 crore for his government's flagship five guarantee schemes in the current financial year.
The five guarantee schemes are: 200 units of free power to all households (Gruha Jyoti), Rs 2,000 monthly assistance to the woman head of every family (Gruha Lakshmi), payment of cash in lieu of the additional 5 kg of rice to every member of a BPL household (Anna Bhagya), Rs 3,000 every month for unemployed graduate youth and Rs 1,500 for diploma holders for two years (YuvaNidhi), and free travel for women in public transport buses (Shakti).
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NATO, others turn down US call for help in Hormuz: Trump
Washington (PTI): President Donald Trump on Tuesday said NATO and most of US' other allies have rejected his calls to help secure the Strait of Hormuz as the war with Iran entered the third week.
In a social media post, Trump asserted that Iran’s military has been “decimated” and he no longer felt the need for assistance from NATO countries or anyone else.
Last week, Trump had sought help from European nations and others who depend on oil supplies transiting from the Hormuz Strait to safeguard the critical waterway.
“The United States has been informed by most of our NATO “Allies” that they don’t want to get involved with our Military Operation against the Terrorist Regime of Iran, in the Middle East, this, despite the fact that almost every Country strongly agreed with what we are doing, and that Iran cannot, in any way, shape, or form, be allowed to have a Nuclear Weapon,” the US President said in a post on Truth Social.
Iran's attacks on Gulf nations and its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil is transported, have sparked increasing concerns of a global energy crisis and are unnerving the world economy.
“I am not surprised by their action, however, because I always considered NATO, where we spend Hundreds of Billions of Dollars per year protecting these same Countries, to be a one-way street — We will protect them, but they will do nothing for us, in particular, in a time of need,” Trump said.
He said Australia, Japan and South Korea too have turned down his call for help.
“Fortunately, we have decimated Iran’s Military – Their Navy is gone, their Air Force is gone, their Anti-Aircraft and Radar is gone and perhaps, most importantly, their Leaders, at virtually every level, are gone, never to threaten us, our Middle Eastern Allies, or the World, again,” Trump said.
He said that given the scale of recent military successes, the US no longer "need" or desires assistance from NATO countries, adding that it never relied on such support in the first place.
Speaking as President of the United States, the "most powerful" country in the world, "we do not need" help from anyone, Trump said.
The West Asia conflict began on February 28 when the US-Israeli combine conducted airstrikes on Iran.
The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, has effectively been shut following the US and Israel attack on Iran and Tehran's sweeping retaliation.
However, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had said that from Tehran's "perspective", the strait is "open". "It is only closed to Iran's enemies, to those who carried out unjust aggression against our country and to their allies.”
Earlier in the day, a second Indian-flagged LPG tanker, Nanda Devi, reached the country after safely sailing from the war-hit Strait of Hormuz. On Monday, the first ship, Shivalik, reached Mundra port in Gujarat.
As of now, 22 Indian vessels remain on the west side and two on the east side of the strait.
Indian authorities are in constant touch with all the relevant stakeholders in the region to secure the safe passage of the remaining ships, officials said.
