Bengaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who is planning to create history by presenting a Rs 2 lakh crore budget for the first time in Karnataka, was taken aback on Monday when his Council of Ministers came out with demands worth Rs 16 lakh crore at the pre-budget meeting.
Informed by the Chief Secretary and Finance Secretary that the state government would need a Rs 16 lakh crore budget to meet all the demands made by the ministers, Mr Siddaramaiah explained that he was planning to present a budget with a plan outlay of Rs 2 lakh crore despite the state’s financial problems owing to GST and demonetization, and anything more would be impossible to meet.
Responding to his query if they were eying the coming polls with their demands, the ministers replied in the affirmative, noting that this would be the last budget and the next would only be vote on account for salary payment. Mr Siddaramaiah assured he would do his best to incorporate all the suggestions made.
The Chief Minister also informed the meeting that the drought was likely to continue next year and the government would have to carry out cloud seeding from May this year. While Primary and Secondary Education Minister, Tanvir Sait, suggested introducing English medium and LKG and UKG in government schools, ministers Kagodu Thimmappa and Ramesh Kumar wanted the Chief Minister to widen the scope of populist schemes like Anna Bhagya, Ksheera Bhagya , Vidya Siri and Manaswini.
The first of its kind meeting, it was reportedly held at the prompting of a few ministers at the coordination committee chaired by Congress general secretary, Digvijay Singh, last week. While Mr Singh himself seemed aware of the fact that some of the ministers were not backing the Chief Minister and were also feeling neglected in the administration, newly inducted ministers, Ramesh Kumarand Basavaraj Rayareddy suggested the Chief Minister should take all the ministers to confidence as the state was going to the polls next year.
