The Hindu : Karnataka News : ‘Ban on arrack has hit the poor: Siddaramaiah

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Tuesday, May 13, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka

‘Ban on arrack has hit the poor: Siddaramaiah

Staff Correspondent

‘Congress will discuss the issue if voted to power’

‘Poor spending twice as much
on IMFL’
Confident that Congress will come to power in State

Siddaramaiah

DAVANGERE: Congress leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday said that the coalition government of the Janata Dal(Secular) and the Bharatiya Janata Party had burdened the poor by banning the sale of arrack.

Addressing a press conference here, he observed that the poor, who were mainly workers, had been forced to spend more than twice the amount they spent on arrack to purchase Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL). Quoting a report of the Excise Department, Mr. Siddaramaiah said the consumption of IMFL in the State was around 12 lakh cases a month before arrack was banned. After the ban, consumption of IMFL had gone up to 35 lakh cases a month. “In what way has the ban on arrack helped the poor,” he asked. Prohibition had not been successful in State, including Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, he said.

Mr. Siddaramaiah, however, clarified that it did not mean that he was in favour of lifting the ban on arrack. He said that if the Congress was voted to power, a detailed discussion would be held on whether or not to continue with the ban.

He charged that during the 20-month tenure of the Janata Dal (Secular) and BJP coalition government, the administration had come to a standstill.

He said that tax growth, which had touched 29 per cent when he was Finance Minister, had dropped to 14 per cent during the period when B.S. Yeddyurappa was the Finance Minister. Resource mobilisation, spending on priority sector and creating assets were some of the important duties of a responsible government, he said and added that the previous government had not done any of these. Claiming that the former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and Mr. Yeddyurappa had announced crop loan waiver without allocating the required funds for it, Mr. Siddaramaiah alleged that it was for this reason that many cooperative institutions were on the verge of closure. Taking a dig at the BJP, Mr. Siddaramaiah said that the party did not have adequate candidates for all 224 Assembly segments, and had to issue ticket to rebel Congress candidates in many places including Mysore and Mandya. “Could anyone expect a party, which has no candidates of its own to contest all the Assembly segments, to come to power in the State,” he asked. He exuded confidence that the Congress would come to power in Karnataka with a thumping majority.

‘Undemocratic’

Asked about the chief ministerial candidate, Mr. Siddaramaiah said that to name the candidate before the elections would be undemocratic.

Shamanur Shivashankarappa, former MLA and Davangere South Assembly candidate; Gnanadesikan, party observer and Rajya Sabha member, and S.S. Mallikarjun, president of Davangere District Congress Committee, were present.

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