Govt 'marching ahead' by implementing budget announcements, says Kumaraswamy

Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy Friday said his government was "marching ahead" by implementing budget announcements in a time-bound manner, even as he hit out at those criticising the Congress-JD(S) coalition government for not 'having taken off.'

The Chief Minister, who chaired a meeting of officials to review the implementation of budget announcements, set October 15 as the deadline for approval of pending proposals.

"I have instructed officials of various departments to take approval to programmes announced during the budget that are still pending, before October 15.

I have set October 15 as the deadline," he said.

"Some say this government has not taken off, but when you compare (us) with previous governments, our government is marching forward by working efficiently to implement programmes in a time-bound manner," he said.

Amid rumours about the stability of the Congress-JD(S) coalition government, Kumaraswamy had Thursday asserted that it was 'stable' and would complete its five-year term.

The chief minister said orders have been issued on 230 of the 460 announcements made, including those made in the vote on account by the previous government in February and fresh budget presented by his government in July.

'Others are at various stages," he said

The opposition BJP has been critical of the functioning of the coalition government, saying it has 'not taken off' and has repeatedly demanded that Kumaraswamy come out with a 'white paper' on the state's financial position.

To a question about BJPs demand for a white paper, Kumaraswamy said if they had any information on the finances being in a poor state, they should come out with it

He said the state's economic growth till August end was about 24 per cent, compared to 27 per cent in the previous year and added that the growth could not meet expectations as the election process was then on (in May).

"However, since September economic growth has picked up at a greater phase and efforts are on to further improve it.

Claiming that he has been getting thousands of applications for non-technical and technical jobs from across the state during his 'Janata Darshana' programme, Kumaraswamy said a two-day job fair would be organised from tomorrow to ensure that the applicants got jobs.

The Chief Minister also instructed officials to utilise funds of about Rs 29,000 crore for programmes under the Special Component Plan (SCP) and Tribal Sub Plan (TSP).

"We have also framed guidelines under which officials can be held accountable if funds are not utilised adequately within a given time frame and they can even be punished," he said.