BJP protests at Karnataka Assembly over Valmiki, MUDA scams

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], July 19 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders and legislators staged a protest at the Gandhi statue of the Karnataka Vidhan Soudha over the Maharishi Valmiki Development Corporation and MUDA ‘scams’.

The BJP MLAs and MLCs demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for the alleged ‘scams’.

“Congress has looted money from SC-ST and used that money for the elections in Karnataka and Telangana. We are protesting against that… The CM should resign…,” BJP leader CT Ravi said speaking to ANI on Friday.

In response to this, Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar said that the ruling party will be speaking about the scams that took place when the BJP government was in power in the state during the Assembly session.

“…When BJP government was there in Karnataka, several scams took place… We will tell this before the Assembly and will bring this on record. More than Rs 300 cr scams have taken place under the BJP government. We will tell this in House that they are the kings of corruption…,” Shivakumar said.

Speaking about the allegations, he said, “Some inquiries are underway and soon we will book the culprits…”

Earlier on Thursday, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah hit out at the BJP asking why the party did not implement any legislation to increase the budgetary allocation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes when they were in power.

Siddaramaiah replied to the debate in the House under Rule 69 on the alleged misuse of grants by Valmiki Development Corporation.

The alleged corruption case of the Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation pertains to the “illegal transfer” of funds from the Maharshi Valmiki ST Corporation, which is charged with implementing welfare programmes for scheduled tribe members.

“My reply to the debate in the House under Rule 69 on the misuse of grants by Valmiki Development Corporation. R. Ashok and Vijayendra have asked for my resignation in the Valmiki Corporation case. Former Home Minister Araga Gyanendra said to withdraw the Special Investigation Team. Did you say this about SIT even when you were Home Minister? I want to ask them that,” the Chief Minister posted on X.

“Chandrasekhar committed suicide on May 26. He belongs to the Bovi community of Tamil Nadu. The opposition party has spoken about Dalit and Dalit a thousand times,” he added.

The Valmiki case came to light after an official of the corporation died by suicide and left a note containing an allegation of multi-crore corruption in the corporation.

The official was identified as Chandrasekaran (45), a resident of the Kenchappa colony in Vinobanagar. He was a superintendent with the MVDC and was posted at its Bengaluru office.

In a six-page suicide note recovered by police, Chandrasekaran mentioned the names of three officials and alleged corruption worth crores in the corporation, demanding action against the named officials.