Ballari: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who also holds the finance portfolio, announced on Tuesday that he would present the state Budget for 2018-19 in February instead of March next owing to the elections to the state assembly.
“This time I will present the state budget in February instead of in March as I usually do because assembly elections will be held soon afterwards,” he told reporters here.
Asked about the Centre’s proposal to switch over to a January-December fiscal year, he said the state would not agree to this.
Responding to a query, he said he was open to handing over the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh to CBI, but her mother had asked him not to do so as there was no progress in investigations done by it. “The BJP has in the past ridiculed the CBI, calling it the Chor Bachao Institute and now the same BJP is demanding that it probe Gauri’s murder,” he deplored.
On Home Minister, Ramalinga Reddy’s meeting with JD(S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda on Congress and JD(S) alliance for mayoral elections in Bengaluru, he said, “I sent Ramalinga Reddy to have a first round of talks with Deve Gowda and then I will meet him too.”
Asked about the state’s moves to recover money from illegal iron ore miners, he said a Special Investigation Team (SIT) had been formed to assess the loss caused to the exchequer based on the report of Justice Santosh Hegade on illegal mining and a chargesheet had been filed against the miners in court.
