Karnataka Budget 2022: When will it be tabled? What to expect from CM Bommai’s maiden budget?
CM Bommai is expected to take as much advantage as he can from the Centre’s Rs 1 lakh crore 50-year interest-free loan for states for infrastructure projects under the Gati Shakti scheme. Karnataka is expected to get around Rs 9,000 crore and Bommai may use it to fund infrastructure development in Bengaluru.
FollowChief Minister Basavaraj Bommai who also holds the Finance portfolio will present Karnataka legislature will present his maiden state budget on Friday, March 4.
After two years of Covid-19 induced economic distress, the government has a lot of expectations to cater to. However, revenue collection has improved since the dreaded Delta wave last year, allowing for some big-ticket announcements in the budget.
With just a year left for the Assembly polls and this most likely being the last full-fledged budget ahead of the elections, expectations are that the Chief Minister is likely to woo voters with sops and give thrust to infrastructure.
The Congress, which is concluding its ‘padayatra’ (foot march) demanding the implementation of Mekedatu drinking water project across river Cauvery, is also likely to raise the issue in the Assembly.
Bommai is expected to take as much advantage as he can from the Centre’s Rs 1 lakh crore 50-year interest-free loan for states for infrastructure projects under the Gati Shakti scheme. Karnataka is expected to get around Rs 9,000 crore and Bommai may use it to fund infrastructure development in Bengaluru.
Top government sources note the added challenge of accommodating announcements Bommai has made so far. In the six months that he has been in office, Bommai is said to have announced programmes that may cost in excess of Rs 30,0000 crore - the Raitha Vidyanidhi scholarship for farmers’ children worth Rs 1,000 crore, a special grant for Bengaluru infrastructure aimed at solving the city’s notorious traffic issues by decongesting Hebbal junction at a cost of Rs 6,000 crore, schemes for SC/ST women among others.
The opposition has been critical of the BJP government at the Union government over the evacuation of Indians, especially students, from war-torn Ukraine, following the death of Naveen Shekharappa Gyanagoudar, a 21-year-old medical student from Haveri district, in Russian shelling in Kharkiv city on Tuesday, March 1. The issue is also likely to be raised in the Assembly.
The hijab row, the killing of 28-year-old Bajrang Dal activist Harsha in Shivamogga, and the violence that followed are among the issues that are likely to figure in the Assembly proceedings, with opposition parties appearing set to put the government on the mat on law and order situation in the state.
