Grants for SCs/STs, BC religious institutions

Although Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has not announced any grants to mutts, religious institutions have been alloted grants.

While doing so, the chief minister seems to have been choosy. He has proposed to provide grants to religious institutions run by backward classes and the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes.

Siddaramaiah has announced Rs 50 crore for hostels, educational institutions and community halls run by the SCs and STs religious institutions. In addition, he intends to sanction Rs 75 crore for religious and other associations belonging to backward classes for construction of community halls and hostel buildings.

Incidentally, the Congress had criticised the previous BJP government for granting funds to mutts. The previous government had not hesitated to sanction crores of rupees for dozens of mutts, especially the Lingayat institutions. Siddaramaiah himself had stated that no mutts had every sought financial help from the government.

IT job creation

The government will strive towards implementing the recommendations of the IT sector in a phased manner from 2013-14 and increase job creations from eight lakh to 20 lakh in the sector.

Siddaramaiah said it will try to increase exports in the sector from the current Rs 1.35 crore to Rs four-lakh crore.

For this purpose, the government will seek restarting of the Software Technology Park of India Scheme to promote competitiveness and capacity
of small IT companies to face global competition.