Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah flings copy of budget into well of Assembly

Bengaluru, Jul 24: Ruling Congress and BJP members were locked in a verbal clash in Karnataka Assembly on Friday over alleged cut in funding of centrally-sponsored schemes, with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, angry with disruptions, flinging a copy of the budget into the well of the House.

Amidst chaos and charges, the Assembly passed demands for grants by various departments and the money Bill by a voice vote.

The two parties sparred during the Chief Minister's reply to the discussion as he accused the NDA government of reducing funding for centrally-sponsored schemes. Angered by BJP's repeated disruption and allegations of giving wrong information, Siddaramaih threw a copy of budget into the well of the House, which led to heated arguments between both sides.

Following this, the BJP members entered into the well of the House shouting slogans against the Congress government and the Chief Minister.

As repeated attempts by Speaker Kagodu Thimmappa to convince BJP members to allow Chief Minister to continue with the reply failed, he put the demands and money Bill to vote, and amidst protest and sloganeering they were passed by a voice vote.

In his reply, Siddaramaiah claimed his government is transparent and corruption free.

"Ours is a corruption free, pro-people government. There have been no allegations of corruption against our government in the last two years," he said.

He also measured transparency standard of his government by pointing out that it has handed over six cases till date to CBI while the previous BJP government had not handed over even a single case.

PTI