Karnataka tops per-capita income due to guarantees: CM Siddaramaiah

Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday rubbished the Opposition’s argument that developmental activities had taken a backseat, asserting that the five 'guarantee' schemes had resulted in Karnataka having the highest per-capita income.

Siddaramaiah was replying in the Assembly to the debate on "lack of development" initiated by Leader of the Opposition R Ashoka.

"Until now, we've spent Rs 96,000 crore on the 'guarantee' schemes. It is because of these schemes that Karnataka is number one in the country in terms of per-capita income," Siddaramaiah said.

Siddaramaiah said Karnataka's per-capita income is Rs 2.04 lakh. "Many think that the guarantees schemes aren't development programmes. How is this possible without development?" he said. "Purchasing power has increased. Every household is getting Rs 4,000-5,000 per month. Isn't this development?"

The CM claimed that the Shakti scheme - free bus travel for women - has increased employment rate by 23% in Bengaluru and 21% in Hubballi-Dharwad.

Karnataka is facing fiscal constraints not due to the 'guarantee' schemes, but because of mismanagement by the previous BJP government, Siddaramaiah said.

"You (BJP) invited tenders for works worth Rs 2.7 lakh crore without budgetary allocation. Also, Rs 1.66 lakh crore was sanctioned as the CM's discretionary grants. That's why pending bills rose," Siddaramaiah said.

Siddaramaiah again pointed out that Karnataka's share in taxes was reduced under the 15th Finance Commission. "The state has faced a total loss of Rs 80,000 crore. Such a loss makes it difficult to reach expected levels of development," he said. "Despite all this, we've given a budget sized Rs 4.09 lakh crore, up from Rs 3.71 lakh crore. How can development take a backseat?" he said.

Whitepaper

Siddaramaiah told the Assembly that his government will release a whitepaper on centrally-sponsored schemes (CSS). "Some [Congress] MLAs have demanded a whitepaper. A few years ago, the Centre's share in CSS was 75%. Under PM Modi, it's down to 58-60%. People should know about this. In a few days, we'll produce a whitepaper on this," he said.

Grants to all MLAs

Responding to demands by Opposition MLAs that their constituencies must be provided grants, Siddaramaiah assured them that that funds will be provided "depending on the available resources". He said Rs 8,000 crore has been earmarked for infrastructure development. "We will distribute this among all MLAs," he said. He assured Opposition MLAs that he would call a meeting to discuss their constituency needs.