Bengaluru: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday criticised Karnataka’s earlier decision to shut Jan Aushadhi Kendras operating within government hospitals, calling it an example of the Congress party’s “pettiness”.The Jan Aushadhi scheme had made medicines up to 60% cheaper and helped families save nearly Rs 40,000 crore across the country, Sitharaman said addressing party workers at the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Samavesh at the BJP headquarters in Bengaluru.“By briefly shutting these centres in Karnataka, the state government hurt the poor and middle class, the very people these schemes are meant to serve. It shows their pettiness, but that's how the Congress actually works,” she said.The Karnataka High Court in December last year quashed a state government notification directing the closure of PM Jan Aushadhi Kendras functioning within government hospital premises. While allowing a batch of petitions challenging the decision, Justice M Nagaprasanna observed that the government could not interfere with the supply of medicines to the poor, whether provided free of cost or at nominal prices.The Centre has adopted a franchise-led model for operating Jan Aushadhi Kendras and has set a target of opening 25,000 centres by March 2027.Citing a recent Lok Sabha reply by Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilisers Anupriya Patel to BJP MP Jagadish Shettar, Sitharaman said Jan Aushadhi medicines had helped citizens in Karnataka save an estimated Rs 5,700 crore over the past decade.The finance minister also countered the Karnataka government's contention that the state had been short-changed in tax devolution by the Centre.“There is a narrative floated by the state government that Karnataka does not get its due. The numbers tell a very different story,” she said.According to Sitharaman, Karnataka received about Rs 4 lakh crore in tax devolution between 2014 and 2026, nearly five times the Rs 82,000 crore received during 2004-14. In addition, the state received Rs 2.71 lakh crore as grants-in-aid during the period, compared with Rs 60,000 crore in the previous decade.She said Karnataka had also received around Rs 18,000 crore under the Centre’s 50-year interest-free loan scheme for infrastructure creation through the Special Assistance to States for Capital Investment programme.For 2026-27 alone, Karnataka’s budgeted tax devolution stands at Rs 63,000 crore, equivalent to about 76% of the amount received by the state during the entire UPA period from 2004 to 2014, Sitharaman said.She added that the Modi government remained committed to the principles of cooperative federalism while supporting states through tax transfers, grants and capital investment assistance.