BANGALORE: The Congress on Thursday termed Governor T.N. Chaturvedi's address to the joint session of the State legislature disappointing because it did not mention new policies aimed at uplifting the poor, job creation and augmentation of power supply.

Reacting to the Governor's address, Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly N. Dharam Singh and senior member M. Mallikarjun Kharge said Mr. Chaturvedi had read out public speeches made by Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa in the past few months.

"The address is nothing but old wine in a new bottle," Mr. Kharge said.

There was no mention about policies and programmes planned by the Janata Dal (S)-Bharatiya Janata Party coalition government in the coming years, they said. There was no reference in the address to the D.M. Nanjundappa committee report on removing regional imbalances and developing the backward regions of north Karnataka. Mr. Singh was critical of the Government's attitude towards farmers and said hundreds of tonnes of foodgrains lying in godowns was not being utilised. The Government was still thinking of waiving farmers' loans. The Government was yet to use the amount (Rs. 250 crore) released by the Centre for drought relief measures.

Though the Centre had announced a Rs. 2,689-crore package for farmers in six districts of the State, no plan had been prepared to implement it, he said.

Mr. Kharge said a majority of development works sanctioned by the Government were confined to Shimoga and Hassan districts.

The former Deputy Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the address was a repetition of schemes that had already been announced. "The speech is a reflection of the Government's failure on all fronts."

The H.D. Kumaraswamy-led coalition government was covering up its "zero performance" by making tall claims, and it was unfortunate that a series of unfulfilled promises were passed of as achievements of the Government, Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council H.K. Patil said on Thursday.

In his reaction to the Governor's address, Mr. Patil said it was unfortunate that the Government had claimed credit for taking forward the decentralisation of panchayati raj institutions, when in fact funds, functions and officials concerning 29 subjects had been transferred to the institutions when N. Dharam Singh was the Chief Minister.

In the past year, Panchayat Raj Minister C.M. Udasi had systematically derailed the decentralisation process by bringing back MLAs on various committees at the panchayat level where beneficiaries of schemes are selected.

North Karnataka had been grossly neglected, and in the past year only Hassan and Shimoga figured as beneficiaries in development programmes.

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