Leaders, experts laud salient features of State Budget

Elected representatives and financial experts have termed the budget as growth-oriented and complementary for fiscal growth.

However, they felt there is a need to allocate more funds for key sectors in the coastal region, keeping in mind possibilities of growth in the field of tourism.

Leaders from the opposition are of the opinion that the budget has nothing new to offer to the region.

Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel said that the state budget presented by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has focused on fiscal revival and has laid emphasis on basic infrastructure, health, agriculture and education.

Projects have been announced towards ensuring drinking water and irrigation. Grants allocated towards the development of fisheries and ports is welcome, he said.

'Pro-people budget'

Social Welfare and Backward Classes Welfare Minister Kota Srinivas Poojary thanked the CM for providing the 'Pancha Tantra' formula for the holistic development of the state.

The budget will bring about positive changes in the lives of financially deprived classes, amid the troublesome period of the pandemic, he said.

Kota welcomed increasing the number of gaushalas in the state to 100, support for 100 deep-sea mechanised fishing boats under Matsyashree, implementation of measures to prevent the flooding of saltwater from the river to agricultural fields, upgrading of 100 PHCs to CHCs, the establishment of Narayanaguru residential schools and so on.

He said that an additional grant of Rs 2,229 crore has been provided to the social welfare department.

'Digital revolution'

Mangalore City South MLA D Vedavyas Kamath said the budget has announced the initiation of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya hostels for students belonging to SC/ST, backward and minority communities.

An amount of Rs 20 crore has been provided for the Digital Start-up cluster in Mangaluru, initiation of new technology for prevention of sea erosion and announcement of blue plastic management project at a cost of Rs 840 crore with World Bank funds to prevent pollution in the coastal region which is first of its kind in the country, he said.

The MLA also welcomed the provision of Rs 500 crore for the Paschima Vahini project.

'Nothing new'

MLC and DCC president K Harish Kumar said that the state budget was disappointing and was a continuation of the previous year's budget.

Dakshina Kannada district has been totally neglected in the budget. There are no welfare programmes for beedi workers. No relief is provided to Endosulfan victims, he added.

He said that 72,000 crore loans is an achievement of the state government.

'No assurance on jobs'

DYFI state president Muneer Katipalla and secretary Basavaraja Poojara flayed the state budget and said it has said nothing about job creation for the youth.

Nothing has been said in detail on how the skills of rural youth will be developed, they said.

'Growth-oriented'

Chartered accountant S S Nayak said the state government's budget is growth-oriented as well as populist.

Despite an increase in the size of the budget which is 2.65 lakh crore, the fiscal deficit is 3.26% which is within the permissible limit of 3.5% of state GDP. This is a major positive development. The state GDP for the current fiscal year is predicted at 9.2% and is 1.5% more than the country's GDP estimated by IMF which is 9.2% for the year. Karnataka's overall State Gross Domestic Product is 9.5%, he said.

The state's sales tax on petrol and diesel has not been increased which is a good measure, he added.

He also welcomed the proposed construction of cold storage units for agriculturists.

Retired professor in Economics and former member of the State Planning Board, Prof G V Joshi said that thrust has been laid on three E's - Education, Employment and Empowerment.

The fiscal discipline of the state is good. However, there is no major grant allocation for coastal Karnataka, apart from fisheries and port development. There were ample opportunities for the improvement of tourism in the region, he said.

Joshi further pointed out that the CM a few months back had said there is a need to upgrade the recommendations of the Nanjudappa committee report, in terms of allocation of funds. Sadly, he did not announce any measures in the budget towards the same.

MLC Manjunath Bhandari termed the budget as disappointing.