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Irked Congress MLAs want CLP meeting

Congress MLAs have blamed that there is an impression that budget has restricted to only old Mysuru region.

Bengaluru: Irked by disparity in allocation of funds in budget proposals announced by Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, several Congress legislators have urged the top brass of the party to convene a meeting of Congress Legislature Party (CLP) to discuss the issue.

Their demand came after senior leader and former minister H.K. Patil expressed his displeasure over lack of funds for developmental schemes in north Karnataka region. Mr. Patil wrote to coordination committee chairman Siddaramaiah, deputy chief minister Dr.G. Parameshwara and party general secretary in-charge of the state, K. C. Venugopal, seeking a meeting of the coordination committee.

A majority of ruling Congress members have expressed their displeasure over levying taxes to petrol and diesel, tax on motor vehicles, liquor and electricity. To match the grants of crop loan waiver, Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy has levied surcharge to petroleum products and tax on usage of electricity, leaving Congress MLAs red faced. They urged the party leadership to call CLP meeting before the end of budget session, sources said.

Congress MLAs have blamed that there is an impression that budget has restricted to only old Mysuru region. Regional imbalance seems visible in the budget. Besides, the issue of regional imbalance in allocation of funds, these legislators are upset about lack of new schemes for the benefit of minorities and fear that voters belonging to minority communities could jump ship ahead of next year's elections to Lok Sabha.

Former minister Tanveer Sait and Mr Patil pointed out these lacuna soon after Mr Kumaraswamy presented the budget with waiver of farm loans of Rs 34,000 crores.

( Source : Deccan Chronicle. )
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