“I cannot describe how glad I am after presenting this budget. I’ll write with my blood that my belief in you (farmers) has grown tremendously. It’s the same relief one gets after finishing a good job,” he said.
Asserting that he had kept people’s interests in mind while presenting the budget, Yeddyurappa sought to paint a rosy picture of agriculture in Karnataka.
He said many valuable opportunities to develop a rural economy “had been lost”. “We have waited enough since Independence for transforming our villages and making them on par with cities. It’s time we created good facilities in the rural too,” the chief minister said.
Yeddyurappa conceded that many schemes devised for farmers had failed because of middlemen.
“These schemes should reach farmers directly on time. No farmer should feel cheated. Subsidies ought to be sent without the interference of middlemen,” he hoped.
Short on excitement
Earlier, during the budget presentation aired live on LED screens at the venue, farmers appeared hardly excited. While many of them kept gazing at the screens raising a handful of slogans when Yeddyurappa announced various schemes, most of them appeared uninvolved.
A few nodded off and some others took breaks killing their hunger and quenching their thirst. Vendors selling ice creams, wristwatches and clothes made brisk business at the park.
Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa on Thursday said his presenting a separate agriculture budget was an innovative step hoped it would be soon emulated by the Union government.
Addressing a press conference after presenting the budget in the Assembly, Yeddyurappa, who also holds the finance portfolio, said the agriculture budget would help in the development of the sector, resulting in the creation of more jobs and high income in rural areas.
He said there was no constitutional bar on presenting a separate budget for agriculture sector. “In the interest of food security of the nation, I hope that the Karnataka Agriculture budget will become a model for the Centre and other states,” he said.
The chief minister said 10 lakh farmers would be identified under the Suvarna Bhoomi Yojana and the first installment of financial assistance of Rs 5,000 for each family would be disbursed before the onset of monsoon.
He pointed out that the plan outlay for 2011-12 had been fixed at Rs 38,070 crore —an increase of 23 per cent, compared to the previous year.
Rs one lakh crore budget next year
The total expenditure for 2011-12 is estimated at Rs 85,319 crore, Yeddyurappa said and expressed confidence that he would be presenting a Rs one lakh crore budget for the next fiscal.