Bengaluru: Taking on the Centre yet again, the Karnataka government on Monday accused the Modi government of cutting allocations for various state- run programmes essential for its development.
In his address to the joint session of the state legislature, Governor Vajubai Vala said Karnataka was among the most fiscally prudent states in the country.
While the devolution pool for the states had increased under the 14th Finance Commission from 32 to 42 per cent , pushing up it’s share within it, there had been a net reduction in actual transfer of resources to the state owing to cut in Central grants and support for state plans, he said.
Although lack of clarity on Central allocation and the revised sharing pattern of many Centrally sponsored schemes had affected implementation of development schemes, the Karnataka government had protected the most essential of them using state funds, the Governor said.
Lauding the success of the recently concluded Invest Karnataka - 2016, he said it had attracted over Rs 3 lakh crore in investment.
As many as 1,080 projects with Rs 1.77 lakh crore in investment had been approved to create employment for 4.82 lakh people, he added.
Mr Vajubai Vala also noted that the first phase of the Bengaluru Metro Rail covering 42.3 km was nearly complete with the train operating over 26 km already.
Its second phase covering 72 km was being implemented as well, he noted. Also major roads in Bengaluru city were being developed at a cost of '1,000 crore, he claimed.
Moving on to law and order, the Governor noted that the Karnataka State Acquittals Review Committee had been constituted at the state, range and district levels to deliberate on the commissions and omissions of the courts.
He also referred to the Mobile One services, Sakala and online initiatives for the APMC markets as pathbreaking initiatives of the government.
Confrontational, directionless: Shettar
Describing the Governor’s address as directionless, opposition leader Jagadish Shettar said that the state government seemed only interested in being confrontational with the Centre, which would be detrimental to its interests in the long run.
While the Governor's address was usually seen as an indicator of things to come in the state budget, the present speech gave no such indication barring mention of certain programmes already being implemented, he regretted.
