Bengaluru: Karnataka chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy all but executed his party’s poll-eve promise, announcing a whopping largesse of Rs 34,000 crores for farmers in distress, but his maiden Budget could well invite the wrath of the middle class and lower middle class as he proposed a hike in prices of fuel, electricity, liquor and a substantial increase in motor vehicle tax, and earmarked unimpressive sums for makeover of Bengaluru city on Thursday.
With a waiver of loans of this magnitude, Mr Kumaraswamy figures after his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath who wrote off farm loans to the tune of Rs 36,000 crores and the UPA government’s largesse of Rs 72,000 crores.
In the process, Mr Kumaraswamy adopted the “rob Peter to pay Paul” strategy, proposing to hike taxes on a slew of items and goods predominantly used by the lower and middle classes.
The upshot: new vehicles will be expensive in view of a staggering 50 per cent increase in motor vehicle tax and higher taxes on fuel and electricity. The chief minister also implemented another pre-poll promise of JD(S), with an announcement of monthly allowance of Rs 6,000 for pregnant women belonging to BPL families but capped this scheme for families with two children. He, however, dealt a body blow to his predecessor Siddaramaiah’s favourite scheme “Annna Bhagya”, reducing the quantum of supply of rice from 7 kg to 5 kg. The minorities, crucial vote bank of Congress, were denied benefits with not a single new scheme unveiled in the Budget.
With his party’s focus on the farm sector, Mr Kumaraswamy who visited Israel to study innovative means of farming on the eve of Assembly polls, announced a slew of measures to revive this sector. The new initiatives include: zero budget natural farming, constitution of a Farmers Advisory Committee, Israel model irrigation facility in 5,000 hectare of agriculture land, proposing different cropping patterns for 10 different agro-climatic conditions and promotion of growing pulses in districts like Mandya where farmers prefer to grow sugarcane and paddy.
Yeddyurappa with his benevolence to various small and microscopic communities besides allocating Rs 25 crore for uplift of Brahmins.
