Budget is all about arranging finances to run the five guarantee schemes, says Prathap Simha Nayak

Budget is all about arranging finances to run the five guarantee schemes, says Prathap Simha Nayak

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, Mar 09, 2024: Except for measures to generate revenue for running the five guarantee schemes, the State Budget presented by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has nothing to offer in terms of schemes for the development of the State, said Prathap Simha Nayak, MLC, in Mangaluru on Friday, March 8.

 

Talking to reporters here, Mr. Nayak said the Congress failed to think of finances and announced the five guarantees to come to power. No money has been allocated for developmental schemes and programmes, he said.

Giving specific instances, Mr. Nayak said the State government failed to build 5,000 houses for fishermen as stated in the vote of account. It has now been announced in the Budget about building 10,000 houses without making any allocation. He said ₹1,000 crore was allocated for the welfare of Muslims, while ₹200 crore was allocated for the welfare of Christians. For Hindus, there is no allocation and in turn, a Bill was passed to take away ₹300 crore from temple ‘Hundi’ for minority welfare, he said.

Bharathi Shetty, MLC, said the State government has hiked stamp duty 10 times. It has allowed bars to be open for nearly two hours more in the night in order to garner revenue from excise duty.

Mr. Nayak said the State government has driven people the wrong way by falsely accusing the Central government of not releasing the funds as against taxes collected from the State. As against ₹84,000 crore released as devolution of the taxes to the State during the Congress-led UPA rule between 2004 and 2014, the BJP-led NDA government has released ₹2.82 lakh crore between 2014 and 2024. In terms of grant in aid, ₹60,000 crore was released by the UPA government, while ₹2.36 lakh crore was released by the NDA government, which was 243% more than what UPA government had released, he said..

The State BJP has formed 10 teams of 33 BJP MLCs, who are tasked with touring 31 districts of the State and interacting with first-time voters, beneficiaries of Central government welfare schemes, and cooperative society members. This is the first round of direct interaction of the party with voters, Mr. Nayak said..

Mr. Nayak and Ms. Shetty are part of the team touring the district headquarters of Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, and Chikkamagalaru.

Courtesy: The Hindu