BENGALURU: Former Karnataka Health minister Dr K Sudhakar on Friday said the budget speech of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was a mirror to his helplessness, adding that the maiden budget of the Congress government since it came to power earlier this year will only plunge the state into a fiscal crunch in the coming years.
Earlier, on Friday, Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah, who also holds the Finance portfolio, presented the state Budget for fiscal 2023-24.
Reacting to the budget presented by the Congress government, Sudhakar said, “The budget presented by CM Siddaramaiah is full of hollow statements with no clarity on financial allocations. The first budget by the Congress governmnt (in its current term) has only laid the ground for pushing the state towards a fiscal crisis in the coming years.”
He added that the CM’s speech on the floor of the Assembly sounded more like a ‘political’ than a ‘Budget’ speech.
“CM Siddaramaiah’s Budget speech sounded more like a political speech rather than a vision statement for Karnataka. He should have been more statesman-like when he spoke about the Covid-19 pandemic. It was PM Modi’s leadership which steered the country out of the pandemic-induced crisis,” the BJP leader said.
“For more than two years, the Centre provided 10 kgs of foodgrains per month to over 80 crore people under PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana. Instead of showing his statesmanship, CM Siddaramaiah behaved like a desperate and helpless politician,” he added.
He further claimed that the Budget was especially disappointing for people in the Bayaluseeme region.
“The budget is highly disappointing for Bayaluseeme districts — Chikkaballapur, Kolar and Bengaluru Rural. Our government had announced the construction of a hi-tech international flower market and set aside Rs 100 crores in the previous Budget. But today’s Budget had no mention of it,” he said.
The Congress government, which recently came to power in the southern state, increased the Budget size from Rs 265,720 crore in 2022-23 to Rs 327,747 crore in 2023-24, a Rs 62,027- crore increase with a growth rate of 23 per cent.
The total revenue expenditure is estimated at Rs 2,50,933 crore while the capital expenditure could be Rs 54,374 crore, an increase of 23 per cent and 16 per cent, respectively.
This is Siddaramaiah’s seventh Budget as chief minister. He presented 6 Budgets in his previous term, from 2013 to 2018. (ANI)