Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. File.
Appealing to people to vote Congress to power in all eight Assembly segments of Dakshina Kannada in the next Assembly election, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said on Monday (October 20) that a government medical college in Puttur will be a reality at any cost.
Addressing a gathering at ‘Ashoka Jana Mana – 2025’ programme organised by Rai Estate Educational and Charitable Trust at Puttur, the Chief Minister said that the Opposition party leaders have expressed doubts over the government’s committment to establish the college. An announcement on opening the college at Puttur was made by Mr. Siddaramaiah in the 2025-26 State Budget.
“A government hospital and the government medical college will be opened in Puttur as announced. There need not be any doubt over the same because we (the Congress government) have delivered what promised,” the Chief Minister said particularly referring to the implementation of five guarantee schemes of the Congress government.
Mr. Siddaramaiah said that as the government has made its promises a reality he has the right to seek people to elect Congress to power in all seats in Dakshina Kannada in the next election. The Congress won two of eight Assembly seats in the district in the 2023 election leaving the other seats to the BJP.
The Chief Minister said that the Opposition parties which had mocked at the guarantee schemes of the Congress government emulated the same in some states later. “Even the Prime Minister Narendra Modi had stated that Karnataka will go bankrupt if the government implemented guarantee schemes. Did we go bankrupt now,” he asked.
Mr. Siddaramaiah said that Karnataka government so far spent ₹1 lakh crore to implement the guarantee schemes.
Criticising the Union government for patting on its back for rationalising the GST rates after eight years of its implementation, Mr. Siddaramaiah said that Karnataka alone could lose ₹15,000 crore annually from the same. “Then why did the Modi government collect huge taxes since 2017?,” he asked.
Mr. Siddaramaiah said that after the government posted two “efficient” police officials to Dakshina Kannada (Police Commissioner to Mangaluru and Superintendent of Police to Dakshina Kannada district) law and order in the district has improved. Maintaining communal harmony mattered in the growth of a district or state, he said.
The Chief Minister said that the government will enact laws to prevent spreading misinformation and fake news and spoiling communal harmony.
Puttur MLA and founder of the trust Ashok Kumar Rai said that the programme organised on Monday was the 13th annual one organised by the trust to distribute clothes and other utensils to the needy on the occasion of Deepavali.
Published – October 21, 2025 05:07 am IST
