Daijiworld Media Network – Mangaluru (DC)
Mangaluru, Jul 5: Moments after Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy presented his maiden budget here on Thursday July 5, BJP MLAs from Dakshina Kannada and Udupi submitted a hand-written letter of protest over not making any announcements for coastal Karnataka.
"Is Kumaraswamy the CM of only Old Mysuru region?" they asked. BJP MLAs alleged that all new projects have been announced only for places where JD(S) leaders are MLAs.
MLC Kota Srinivas Poojary too criticized the budget, stating that the farm loan waiver is not as much as expected. "This is not complete waiver of farm loans."
Budget session
BJP MLAs from coast in a meeting
Mangaluru South MLA Vedavyas Kamath slammed HDK for ignoring the coastal region. "We had urged for special funds for the rain-damaged coastal region, but we got nothing. There is no allocation for coastal development, not even for roads. This is injustice to the people of coastal region and we strongly condemn this."
Meanwhile, BJP MLAs from coastal region said that the state government ignored the fisher men and Endosulfan victims. "We were expecting new announcements for fisheries and Endosulfan victims in coastal region. But the JD(S)-Congress coalition has completely neglected the people of coastal Karnataka and betrayed them."
Udupi MLA K Raghupathi Bhat said, "The budget presented by chief minister H D Kumaraswamy today is disappointing and is the worst budget among budgets presented during the last fifteen years."
“The budget is confined to only three or four districts without considering even a single project for coastal and malnad districts. There are no projects in favour of fishermen. Loan waivers of farmers also are inappropriate. A delegation of fishermen had requested chief minister the other day for subsidy for deep sea fishing. However there is no mention about it anywhere in the budget. It appears that Kumaraswamy has avenged the loss of deposits by JD(S) in the coast.”
“The decision to celebrate the birth anniversary of Shankeracharya is welcome. Therefore, let there be a notification about the celebration as Shankeracharya was born and brought up in the state,” he urged.
Opposition MLAs from coastal Karnataka protested in front of Vidhana Soudha alleging that Dakshina Kannada and Udupi were not even mentioned in the budget.
Sources say soon after the budget presentation, ministers U T Khader and Zameer Ahmed Khan approached HDK to express displeasure over not announcing any allocation for minorities. HDK is learnt to have told them that it would be taken care of in the next budget.