Siddaramaiah woos Karnataka with his government's last budget
Ahead of the Assembly polls, Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah presented his government's last budget. It wasn't a full-fledged budget but a vote-on-account budget as the state goes to polls in April. The budget offered several sops for agriculture, education and health. It also announced various allocations for boosting entrepreneurship and skill development. The budget's theme was building 'Nava Karnataka' to realize people's aspirations. Here's more.
'State's GDP at 8.5% is greater than 7.5% in 2016-17'
Siddaramaiah announced that Karnataka's GDP in 2017-18 has increased to 8.5% against 7.5% in 2016-2017. He also claimed that in 2018-19, the fiscal deficit is expected to be 2.49% of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP). Further, he announced that in the short run, tax collections might have fallen because of frequent changes in the GST regime and glitches in the IT system.
A slew of loan waivers and loan proposals
To lure small and marginal communities, Siddaramaiah proposed to waive loans up to Rs. 50,000 availed by shepherds from cooperative banks (total Rs. 50cr) and loans taken by BPL families from the Karnataka Khadi board. He also announced loans till Rs. 50,000 at 0% interest for fishermen. What's more, he increased old age pension from Rs. 500 to Rs. 600 for the state's 48L senior citizens.
Siddaramaiah announces incentives for farmers, minorities, backward class and Dalits
After declaring that farmer suicides had reduced, the CM allocated Rs. 5,849cr for agriculture. Further, he announced his intention of promoting organic farming, millet crops, groundnut and "Direct Seed Rice" cultivation methods. He also provided many incentives to youth belonging to AHINDA, the Kannada acronym for minorities, backward classes and Dalits, like reservation in hostels, stopping them from gravitating towards BJP.
The budget proposed some new policies
Apart from this, the budget also proposed some new policies like State Fodder Security Policy, new Textile Policy, Feature Film Tourism Policy, etc. For women, it announced setting up Nirbhaya Kendras in all police commissioner's offices and increasing the women workforce by 25%.
What are the proposals for health and education?
Siddaramaiah allocated Rs. 28,846cr for education, 20% higher than last year. Of these Rs. 95cr is to provide free higher education to girls. Further, the government plans to undertake infrastructural development like CCTV cameras, hostels, digital library etc. He also announced Universal Health Coverage 'Aarogya Karnataka' which would begin this month. About 9,000 sub-centres will be upgraded as health and wellness centres.
