Bellary: Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna on October 11 chided the Opposition for terming his "Janaspandana" programme, to have a dialogue with people, as an "election gimmick" and dubbed the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) "Jana Sangarsha Yatra" as a "duplicate" programme.

In an interaction with reporters at Bhuvanahalli village in Bellary district where completion of four years in office was celebrated without any trappings by just distributing sweets, Krishna, who holds the Finance portfolio, indicated that his fifth Budget next year would be an "election budget".

"The Opposition parties have been describing my Budget in the last three years as an election budget. Even the pro-poor welfare programmes evolved by my government came in for criticism," he said.

Singling out the BJP, which began its Jana Sangharsha Yatra, for its attack on his government, Krishna said "repeated defeats in the by-elections has not made the BJP wise. They lost their deposits in two elections. But still wisdom has not dawned on them".

When his attention was drawn to the BJP's statement describing the Janaspandana Yatra as an "atonement yatra", he said "I was hoping that they would become wise at least now".

He said the people had already given their 'certificate', appreciating the good performance of his government. "There are no complaints by them, despite having faced three successive droughts," he said.

Asserting that there was no resentment among people about his rule, Krishna dismissed the repeated Opposition criticism that he was a "hi-tech CM".

"What is meant by hi-tech?” Krishna shot back, rebuking the Opposition criticism that he cared more about hi-tech than rural development. "We have given roads, power, constructed school buildings and houses and are concerned about Dalits and 30 per cent of people living below the poverty line."

Krishna said he had not seen any resentment among people which itself, he said, was an indicator that developmental programmes were indeed reaching the people.

"I have not heard any complaints about failure to take up developmental programmes," said Krishna, whose rule has been free from intra-party dissidence and not faced a serious challenge from the Opposition.

Commenting on the controversial mid-day meal scheme, the Chief Minister said the government was willing to extend the mid-day meal scheme upto 10th standard, provided the Centre conceded their request for providing foodgrains for students studying in the sixth and seventh standards.

"We have been asking the Centre to provide foodgrains to extend the hot meal scheme to cover students upto the seventh standard. If the Centre agrees to this, we will extend the benefit to students upto 10th standard at our cost," he told.

On being asked how the government would mobilise resources to fund the programme, the Chief Minister refused to divulge details, but cryptically remarked, "We will do it. It has to be done."

PTI