By Violet Pereira, Team Mangalorean

Mangalore: Minister in-charge of the district C T Ravi, during his routine visit here, held a press meet in the Circuit House on Kadri Hills on October 23.

Addressing the mediapersons, Ravi said that the Indian National Congress president Sonia Gandhi visited Mangalore on October 18. In her speech she had said that the Union government had provided Rs 80,000 crore to the state government and she asked what the state government did with all that money.

He said that the claim of having provided the state government with Rs 80,000 crore was false. "Whatever we have demanded has not been fulfilled and we are disappointed," he said.

"Sonia Gandhi is trying to hide her party's mistakes and blaming the state government. If the Union Government had given the funds to the state government, it is the duty of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India to ask the state government to account for the funds. Why should Sonia Gandhi act like the Accountant General?"  he questioned. 

He also said that if the state government had received any amount, it was not Sonia Gandhi's personal money but it was the tax-payers money. The Union government had misused the tax-payers' money. "Should the CAG ask for the statement of accounts, we will provide the same. We also would like to ask the Union government as to how much money they have misused?" he queried. 

He said that the state government had two questions for Sonia Gandhi, and they are: "How much money is deposited in the Swiss bank and we need the statement of account of the same.  After the elections, Congress promised to bring the black money back from the Swiss bank within 100 days of time, but after 1200 days also the money is still in the Swiss bank. Now we have a suspicion that the money which is in the Swiss bank belongs to Congress leaders, especially the Gandhi and Nehru family. Our Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is helpless. Whoever talks about black money and tries to hold protests, be it Anna Hazare or Baba Ramdev, they will be accused by the Congress leaders and false cases will be booked against them," he further said.

Further speaking on the limit put on supply of gas cylinders, Ravi sought to know as to why the UPA government had introduced such a limit.  "Congress has sown the seed of corruption in the country. From the beginning, it has been involved in various scams such as Mundhra scam, Nagarwala scam, Maruti car scam, LIC scam, Bofors scam and now there was a triangle of scams like sky, earth and underground, namely ISRO and 2G scam, DLF and Adarsh scam and the recent mines and coalgate scams," he added. 

"While Sonia says that corruption is a cancer in the society, it is a fact that corruption started from panchayat to parliament by the Congress leaders. The BJP government has provided loan on 0% interest through co-operative banks but the UPA government did not give any such loans through nationalized banks. For the prime minister's Gram Sadak Yojana, the Centre did not release a single rupee but we did not stop the project. We have started Namma Grama Namma Raste - 'our village our road'. About 20 km in each assembly constituencies were taken up for development. We have plans to take up development of 30 km in each assembly constituencies,” he also added.

He asked the UPA government come in front of the media and submit a statement of accounts about the development work and the funds which Sonia Gandhi claimed to have provided to the state government.

He said that the BJP would organize a huge agitation against the failure on the internal security front and the price hike in basic commodities. From November 10 to 20, an awareness camp would be held, he announced. 

When asked about the former chief minister Yeddyurappa starting a new party, Ravi said,  "Yeddyurappa has said several times that the party is like our mother and whoever deceives the party, does deceive his own mother. I hope Yeddyurappa will uphold the saying and he will not leave the party. If he leaves the party, going by his own words, he will deceive his own mother."

He also said that it was too early to reveal anything about Yeddyurappa, because a leader grow could go up in his career only with the help of the the party and its members and not on his own. "It is a lie that the party did not support Yeddyurappa, but the reality is the party supported Yeddyurappa in every stage of his success," he stressed. 

MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, MLC Monappa Bhandary, party district Padmanabha Kottari, other leaders like Shrikar Prabhu and Raj Gopal Rai were also present.