The JD(S)-Congress coalition government in Karnataka will be clearing it's first hurdle when Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy tables the state budget in the first week of July.
A day after he met AICC chief Rahul Gandhi, the chief minister asserted that his government would table a full-fledged budget and not a "supplementary" budget as suggested by former chief minister Siddaramaiah.
Last week, Siddaramaiah, who is also the chairman of the coordination committee, had claimed that the coalition government would continue all the populist programmes of the previous Congress government, in addition to the new schemes announced by him (as finance minister) during the last budget.
"All popular programmes launched by us will continue and so will the new ones announced by me in last budget. So, Kumaraswamy can table a supplementary budget by including their new schemes," Siddaramaiah had said before going for a 12-day rejuvenation therapy at Dharmasthala. Interestingly, Siddaramaiah's statement comes following the constitution of a five-member committee to draft a Common Minimum Programme(CMP), after reviewing the poll manifestos of both the coalition partners.
The draft CMP is to be approved by the coordination committee before it can be included in the new budget. While the draft panel, comprising M. Veerappa Moily, R.V. Deshpande, D.K. Shivakumar, H.D. Revanna and Bandeppa Kashempur, is finalising the schemes, Kumaraswamy has scheduled pre-budget meetings from Thursday.
Siddaramaiah's take on budget had created friction in the coalition, though deputy chief minister G. Parameshwara and medical education minister D.K. Shivakumar were quick to back JDS on tabling a full-fledged budget.
Kumaraswamy is aware that retaining all the old programmes would leave little scope for his government to introduce new schemes.
A closer look at the last budget reveals that the popular programmes like Anna Bhagya (Rs 2,300 crore), Anila Bhagya (Rs 1,350 crore), Arogya Karnataka (Rs 1,500 crore), Indira canteens, Matru Poorna(nutritious food for pregnant and lactating women), pension schemes like Manaswini and Mythri, free uniform, textbook, shoes and milk to school children make up for almost 40 per cent of the total budget outlay (Rs 2.14 lakh crore). In addition, the farm loan waiver of Rs 53,000 crore, a poll promise made by Kumaraswamy would alone cost 30-35 per cent of the total budget.
Kumaraswamy said, "Siddaramaiah is a senior leader with experience of having tabled 13 budgets. He has made a suggestion. However, the cabinet will take the final call. I have only shared my vision for the development of the state with Rahul Gandhi. I have not complained about anyone."
Stating farm loan was still a top priority, the chief minister said, "I am committed to waiving off farm loans and hence working out a strategy to tap resources and plug leakages to fund the loan waiver that will benefit the farmer and not the middlemen or the banks. I also requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to extend assistance for the farm loan waiver across the country."