Amid ruckus in Assembly, CM promises strict action against culprits

Opposition members protesting in the Well of the Assembly over the scam in the Valmiki corporation, on Friday.
| Photo Credit: K. BHAGYA PRAKASH

The Legislative Assembly witnessed acrimonious scenes on Friday over the alleged multi-crore scam in the Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki ST Development Corporation Ltd., with the BJP and JD(S) members continuing protest against the Congress government, accusing it of corruption and demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and a CBI probe into the scam.

In the midst of the Opposition’s continued sloganeering from the Well of the House, Mr. Siddaramaiah read out a reply to the debate on the matter and accepted that a scam had taken place and assured that strict action would be taken against the culprits involved in it.

The BJP and JD(S) members shouted slogans accusing the Chief Minister and his government of “theft”, “loot”, “injustice to SC/ST” etc. and demanded that Mr. Siddaramaiah resign.

The Chief Minister ruled out his resignation and turned the tables on the BJP, listing out various alleged scams that occurred during the BJP tenure. He said that his government would get scams that occurred during the BJP tenure also probed.

“There is no question of protecting anyone. There is no compromise with corruption. Our fight against corruption will continue,” the Chief Minister said, amidst protest.

He questioned the manner in which the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had conducting the investigation and said, “We are not scared of ED and BJP.”