Congress leaders in Mysuru on Saturday performed the ritualistic ‘tarpan’ of the State Budget 2023-24, presented by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Friday, with flowers on their ears.
It was staged at the Congress office by a group of partymen pouring water from betel leaves on a handbag that symbolized the state budget. The Congressmen raised slogans of “Karnataka Budget 2023-24 Govinda Govinda” by tying flowers to both their ears.
KPCC spokesperson M. Lakshman, who led the event along with Mysuru District Congress Committee president BJ Vijayakumar, said the party was performing the ritual to expose the “gimmick” of the BJP, which presented the state budget on Friday ahead of the assembly elections. did. round the corner.
Stating that the state budget would come into effect from April 1, 2023, Mr Laxman said the BJP government would not be in a position to give effect to the provisions of the budget after the election code of conduct is announced, which is expected by March 10.
Therefore, the state budget presented by Mr. Bommai on Friday was nothing more than an “election gimmick”, Mr. Laxman said.
The act of the Congress leaders symbolically expressed that the BJP government is fooling the people of the state by presenting a budget which will not materialise.
Mr. Laxman said that during the budget presented last year, the BJP government had promised to implement a total of 339 different schemes in the state. But, only 207 schemes were implemented while the remaining 132 could not be completed.
Also, out of 112 promises made to the farmers in last year’s budget, the government could not fulfill more than 15 promises.
The government was able to spend barely 56 per cent of last year’s budget size of Rs 2.62 lakh crore. He claimed that only Rs 1.4 lakh crore was spent last year.
Similarly, the government had promised to set up a Weavers Development Corporation in the last budget and proposed to set aside ₹1,000 crore. “But, neither the corporation was set up nor the funds made available”, he said.
He claimed that the government had promised to build 5 lakh houses. But, only 11,880 houses could be built, he lamented. Besides, the budgetary promise to develop the state’s six regional engineering colleges and other prestigious engineering colleges into Karnataka Institute of Technology (KIT) on the lines of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) has also not been implemented, lamented Mr. Laxman .
The Congress has already promised 200 units of free electricity every month to all 1.6 crore residential residential units in the state, ₹2,000 per month to a woman in each household and 10 kg of free rice every month, Mr Laxman said. The party comes to power after the election.