Siddaramaiah, former Chief Minister and the current leader of opposition in the Karnataka assembly, dubbed state Education Minister BC Nagesh a "anti-educationist" and requested that the minister of primary and secondary education be removed from the cabinet.
He tweeted about government schoolchildren receiving shoes and socks and added, "We had to wake Chief Minister Basavaraja Bommai to throw him out of his cabinet."
"The anti-prudence Education Minister BC, who was going to take away the shoes and socks from the poor school children, has no humanity. Nagesh is making one or two mistakes?" Siddaramaiah lamented the state government saying, "First remove this anti-education person from the cabinet".
Earlier, Education Minister Nagesh had sparked a controversy by saying that “students don’t come to school for socks and shoes, instead to seek education”. However Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president D K Shivakumar, in a reply to Nagesh's comment, stated that the Congress party will "beg and provide shoes and socks to the students".
The cycling, shoes, and socks programmes had been abandoned by the education department due to a lack of funding in the current year's budget but after receiving flak over the decision, the government led by Chief Minister Basavaraja Bommai okayed a proposal worth ₹ 132 crores for the distribution of shoes and socks to school children after the statement by the Education minister and being criticised by opposition parties.
The government has already given its clearance for the uniforms, which are being readied and would eventually be delivered to pupils, CM Bommai said, adding, "Today, I have approved Rs 132 crore for shoes and socks. We will give them. There’s no need to create confusion on this.
