State's debt burden increasing, says Datta

Besides, it is also concealing the fact that the State’s debt burden is increasing, Y S V Datta (JD(S)) said in the Legislative Council, on Wednesday.

Participating in the budget discussion, he said during 1990-91, when Veerendra Patil was the chief minister and Rajashekar Murthy was the finance minister, 62 per cent of the total budget allocation was set aside for these four prime sectors.

During Deve Gowda’s regime, Siddaramaiah had set aside 55.57 pc, while in 2005-06, when the coalition of the Congress and the JD (S) was in power, it has allocated 53.60 pc.  

In 2008-09, after the BJP came to power, the allocation was reduced to 38.41 per cent, it was 38 per cent in 2009-10, and it is 36 per cent in 2010-11. Although it will be 44 per cent in the budget tabled recently, it was still much lower than the when JD(S) shared power in the State.

The allocation to the agriculture sector was 9 pc in 2009-10, the next year it was seven pc and in 2011-12 it would be 10 per cent in the coming year.  But unlike the present chief minister, his predecessors never boasted of their achievements, he said.