K'taka Budget: RDPR minister unhappy over cut in outlay

The ambitious Jaladhare scheme to provide potable water supply to all rural habitats will take off this year from Raichur, Vijayapura, Mandya and Kolar at a cost of Rs 4,000 crore, Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy announced on Friday.

The government has also announced the Jalaamrutha scheme under which 20,000 water preservation works will be taken up over the next two years at a cost of Rs 500 crore. “Water is essential for life. We are facing the adverse effect of global climatic changes through consecutive droughts. Therefore, our government has declared 2019 as Jalavarsha,” Kumaraswamy said in his budget speech.

Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) minister Krishna Byre Gowda, however, is disappointed with the outlay his department has received. In 2018-19, the department had an outlay of about Rs 15,400 crore. This time, it is down to Rs 14,899 crore.

“I’m unhappy with myself over the cut in allocation. Maybe I’ve failed to convince the CM, the deputy CM and the Finance department,” Gowda told DH.

Normally, he said, the allocation for RDPR goes up anywhere between 6-20% every year. “This year, we can’t take up new road works or Grama Vikasa works. For drinking water, we asked for Rs 4,500 crore, but we’ve got Rs 2,800 crore,” he pointed out.

This year, 6,825 rural schools will get compound walls built under ‘Subhadra Shale Yojane’ through NREGA at a cost of Rs 90 crore.

Also, Open Development Grant for every Zilla panchayat will be enhanced by a minimum of Rs 4 crore up to Rs 8 crore and for every taluk panchayat by Rs 1 crore to Rs 2 crore, Kumaraswamy said.

Also, all gram panchayat assets will be digitized to bring under the tax net those properties that are currently outside the bracket.