By Deepika Rathour
New Delhi, Feb 19 (IANS): To buck anti-incumbency and win Karnataka with a clear majority, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is trying every possible way, be it campaigning with the central leadership involved in full strength, garnering SC/ST support, or ensuring the benefits of central schemes reach the last village.
On Friday, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai unveiled a please-all Budget keeping an eye on the party's interests in the upcoming Karnataka Assembly elections. Scaling up the Budget size to Rs 3 lakh crore, Bommai has made it the talking point for the BJP in the run-up to the elections, which are due in the next three months.
In a first in the post-pandemic situation, CM Bommai presented a "revenue surplus" Budget. Revenue receipts were estimated to be Rs 402 crore more than revenue expenditure.
The state is expecting a revenue of Rs 32,000 crore against a target of Rs 29,000 crore in revenue collection for the excise department towards the end of this fiscal. The target for 2023-24 is fixed at Rs 35,000 crore, a 20 per cent increase from the previous year's target.
The Karnataka government has been focusing on SC/ST since a long time and in the budget also he said, "Free coaching will be provided to 10,000 youth belonging to the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Backward Classes, and Minority Classes".
CM Basavaraj Bommai on Friday announced the construction of a Ram Mandir in Ramanagara and allocated Rs 1,000 crore for the development of temples and mutts.
Taking the farmers along, Bommai announced an increase in the limit of interest-free short-term loans given to farmers from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 5 lakh from the coming financial year. The government, Bommai said, has decided to give an additional subsidy of Rs 10,000 in the year 2023-24 under a new scheme 'Bhoo Siri' for 'Kisan Credit Card' holders.
Traffic congestion is one of the major problems in Bengaluru and many governments made the promise but none succeeded.
To reduce the traffic congestion in Bengaluru city, Bommai proposed to develop 75 important junctions with the highest traffic congestion at a cost of Rs 150 crore. As a supplement to this, traffic congestion will be reduced by using Artificial Intelligence for the management of traffic signals by adopting Seamless Signalling.
He said that 20,000 houses will be built for the economically weaker section in Bengaluru this year.
The government, Bommai said, decided to give an additional subsidy of Rs 10,000 crore in the year 2023-24 under a new scheme 'Bhoo Siri' for 'Kisan Credit Card' holders.
In the Budget, the BJP tried to please all in the view of getting advantage in the upcoming state Assembly election. This budget will help the party in campaigning more rigorously and confidently.
However, Bommai had to face protests by the opposition in the Assembly. Congress leaders chose a unique mode of protest against what they termed as "unfulfilled promises" of the BJP government.
They tucked in flowers behind their ears and put out tweets with the hashtag 'Kivi mele hoova', a Kannada expression that literally translates to 'flower on the ear'. The phrase is commonly used when a person is accused of cheating or fooling someone.