Mysore/Mysuru: The State Government has not hiked petrol and diesel prices to raise funds for guarantee schemes, said Karnataka State Guarantees Implementation Authority Vice-Chairman Mehroz Khan, here recently.

Addressing the media persons at Congress Bhavan in city, he said that the price hike was a usual process in any Government and added it was not related to guarantee schemes.

Alleging that the BJP was misguiding people about hike in fuel prices, Mehroz Khan said that the State Government had sufficient funds for guarantee schemes. “Nearly 4 crore people belonging to about 1.20 crore families are reaping the benefits of guarantee schemes. The State Government, which has already spent Rs. 36,000 crore on guarantee schemes, has reserved Rs. 52,009 crore for 2024-25 financial year, he said.

“Mehroz Khan also added about 4,09,34,896 beneficiaries were registered under the Anna Bhagya scheme for which Rs. 5,754 crore had been transferred to the beneficiaries bank accounts, 1.60 crore people under Gruha Jyothi scheme were being supplied with 200 units of free electricity for which Rs. 7,436 crore was allocated, Rs. 20,296 crore was spent under Gruha Lakshmi scheme with each beneficiary being given Rs. 2,000 every month, Rs. 4,857 crore is being spent on Shakthi scheme with 201 crore women being benefited,” he added.

Stating that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah would decide on few recommendations of Congress leaders to keep the affluent out of the schemes, Mehroz Khan said that the Congress State Government had proved the BJP’s allegations about State facing economic crisis as wrong.

“The guarantee schemes have not been implemented keeping in view of the elections. Instead, they have been introduced to provide social stability for the people of the State. There are no proposals to stop the guarantee schemes post Lok Sabha elections,” he said.

City Congress Committee President R. Murthy, District Congress Committee President Dr. B.J. Vijaykumar, General Secretary Bhaskar Gowda, Girish, Arunkumar and Shivakumar were present.