6 months on, many Karnataka Budget promises remain on paper

In sharp contrast to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai’s call to end the ‘chalta hai’ attitude, nearly half of all the announcements that his predecessor B S Yediyurappa made in the 2021-22 Budget have remained on paper without any executive orders issued.

A government order is awaited for implementation of as many as 151 of the 306 announcements made in the Budget, six months after it was presented.

Data shows that the government has issued orders for implementing only 110 announcements made in the budget. Among various departments, the Health & Family Welfare department lags behind as none of the 15 projects have seen the light of the day.

According to the proceedings of the recently concluded Karnataka Development Programme (KDP) meeting, 174 of the 306 budget announcements were new and government orders had to be issued for the implementation of most of these projects.

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Authorities have dragged their feet over implementing them as the state continued to be under severe fiscal distress caused by the lockdown, say official sources.

Among the budget announcements were 19 old schemes which were revised with new provisions, while 72 were existing schemes of the government.

The e-Governance and Transport departments, too, are dragging their feet to implement the schemes promised by Yediyurappa in March.

While 10 of the 15 schemes under the health department are new, eight of the 12 and seven of the 10 announcements under e-Governance and Transport departments, respectively, are fresh ones.

Government orders were issued for only two of the 12 projects under e-Governance department. Like health, orders are yet to be issued to implement budget announcements of the Transport department.

Other departments, too, have fared similarly. Orders are issued for less than half of the budget promises made for infrastructure development, commerce & industries, revenue, women & child development among other departments.

Acknowledging the delay in issuing executive orders, Bommai said the Budget promises will be fulfilled.