Ex-Karnataka chief minister and Congress leader Siddaramaiah, who is also the leader of the opposition in the state, turned up for Friday’s budget presentation with an unusual accessory – a flower tucked behind his right ear – to highlight claims that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has ‘cheated people’ by not fulfilling promises made before the 2018 state election.
The southern state will vote later this year, making this the last full budget of the BJP government led now by chief minister Basavaraj Bommai.
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The Congress and Siddaramaiah have targeted the BJP and the Bommai government for failing to fulfill even 10 per cent of the 600-odd promises made in 2018. The Congress, he claimed, had met 158 of 165 promises given in 2013.
Bommai said his government would present an ‘action taken report’. “We will give a report about all that during the budget, what we said, what we have done. We will give an action taken report,” he was quoted by news agency PTI.
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The chief minister – who holds the finance portfolio and will hope to lead the BJP to victory in the 2023 poll – has said this will be a ‘pro-people budget’ with focus on programmes that support the poorer and weaker sections of the population, including farmers, the working class and women.
With the election around the corner, the Congress has taken shots at the BJP over what it has said will be an ‘election manifesto budget’.
State unit chief, DK Shivakumar, said: “BJP doesn’t have any agenda to help people. BJP government is only about making announcements and promises…”
Meanwhile, Bommai today reached out to the farming community ahead of the election, offering them an increase to the upper limit of interest-free, short-term loan – from ₹3 lakh to ₹5 lakh – from the coming financial year.
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“This year, loans of ₹25,000 crore will be distributed to over 30 lakh farmers,” he declared, adding his government would give additional subsidy of ₹10,000 for 2023/24 under the ‘Bhoo Siri’ scheme for ‘Kisan Credit Card’ holders.
Women farm labourers were also wooed, with a ‘Shrama Shakthi’ scheme that will give ₹500 per head monthly to landless women farm labourers.
A ‘majestic’ Ram temple will be built in Ramanagara district, Bommai said.
With input from agencies