Madikeri: “Being an MP for five years for Mysuru-Madikeri Lok Sabha constituency, Pratap Simha from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has not stood up to the expectations of the people and has not acted responsibly, due to which his party members themselves have rejected him. This time the people will reject him and help the Congress and Janata Dal (S) candidate C H Vijayshankar”, opined MLC from Congress Veena Achaiah, here on Sunday, April 14.
Addressing a press meet here, she said. “Pratap Simha has made false promises to the people. He has remained far from people’s reach in the district and has not acted promptly on the issues of the district. It is the need of the hour that a responsible candidate is elected and not the ones who waste people’s time by making false promises.”
Veena criticized the BJP party and its performance and said, “The BJP is blaming Vijayshankar that his performance was not good when he was the district in-charge minister. At that point of time, it was the BJP State President B S Yeddyurappa who was the chief minister. Why was he not able to bring out the best out of the district in-charge minister then? Because Vijayshankar has left the BJP, it doesn’t mean that they can allege him blindly.”
She slammed the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and Pratap Simha saying, “When the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) led-government was in power the children of small coffee growers were given Rs. 1.5 Crore scholarships, but the NDA has stopped it.”
“Pratap Simha had promised of not implementing Kasturi Rangan report, which he has failed in doing so. When the UPA was in power Rs. 600 cr crop loan was waived off and in current state coalition government Rs. 1 Lakh of individual farmers’ crop loan has been waived off. I too am the beneficiary of the crop loan waiver scheme. The NDA has not done anything for the farmers”, she added.
With regard to the compensation for the 2018 Kodagu flood vicitms, she said that the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) relief fund of Rs. 13000 to 16000 per acre is a 15-year-old rate. Now it is Rs. 25 Lakhs per acre.
“Pratap Simha could have amended the old law and helped the victims in getting the renewed rates. But he has no concern towards the victims and has no interest to deal with it”, she added.
Veena said that the BJP party workers are only shouting pro Modi slogans and not for their candidate Pratap Simha. “This is because he is not easily approachable, and he has proved out to be an MP who doesn’t respond to people’s issues. The district BJP leaders have no proper coordination with Pratap Simha, due to which their leaders have failed in implementing developmental projects,” she said.
RMC member Maletira Bopanna criticized Pratapa Simha for not responding to the issues of black pepper and coffee growers. He said that he had not made an attempt to upgrade the quality to Thalassery or Malabar brands.
RMC member Kusuma Bopaiah was also present.
