Why not a full-fledged budget to present new schemes: Dr G Parameshwar

Bengaluru: A day after former CM Siddaramaiah expressed his reservations over the presentation of a full fledged budget by Chief Minister, H.D. Kumaraswamy when he had already presented one before the Assembly polls, his own party colleague and Deputy CM, Dr G. Parameshwar struck a discordant note stating on Sunday that it was natural for a new government to present a new budget to send out the right signals to voters.

However in the same breath, Dr Parameshwar who is also the KPCC)president, added that the matter would be discussed in the co-ordination committee and a final decision on presenting a full fledged budget will be arrived at.

Speaking to reporters here, Dr Parameshwar said, "Whenever a new government comes to power, it will naturally like to speak about its new programmes and it is usually done by presenting a fresh budget. The co-ordination committee has decided to continue with the programmes of the previous (Congress) government and so it will be a combination of both."

He added that both coalition partners will have to discuss this in the co-ordination committee meeting and only then can the two parties come to a final decision. "The new programmes can be announced in a fresh budget or through an appropriation bill or by way of a supplementary budget, we will have to decide on it in the co-ordination committee," he reasoned.

He argued that the co-ordination committee will have to meet soon after the Common Minimum Programme(CMP) was prepared. "A five-member committee has been formed to study the manifestos of both parties and arrive at a common understanding on every issue. Unless the CMP is completed, the budget cannot be presented," he explained.

Dr Parameshwar also issued a gag order to all his partymen stating that no party leaders was authorised speak on the issue of the budget. "It will be either Congress Legislature party leader, Siddaramaiah or myself who will issue statements with regard to this," he said.

Water resources minister, D. K. Shivakumar who held an in-camera meeting with Dr Parameshwar for over two hours, stated that party leaders need not add to the present confusion on the budget. "The Congress party knows how resolve such (budget) issues," he said cryptically.