Bommai presented budget to arrange BJP's poll expenses: AAP

Bengaluru, Feb 17 (IANS) Karnataka unit of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday said that Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai presented a fake budget for election gimmick.

The AAP stated that if the chief minister had met the people protesting at Freedom Park before preparing the budget, he could have presented a budget closer to reality.

Responding to the media on the state budget for the year 2023-24, State President Prithvi Reddy said, "CM Bommai has presented the budget to make arrangements for BJP's election expenses. By announcing that they will give interest-free loans of Rs 3 to 5 lakh to the farmers, they are destroying the sinking boat by putting more weight on it."

"Thus, instead of putting the farmers in debt, the MSP and support price should have been increased. There is no solution in the budget to solve the problem of unemployment. Building classrooms alone will not solve the problems of schools. Teachers should be given advanced training. How will the government implement other schemes when the High Court has reprimanded it for not being able to provide uniforms? Eggs and other foods have not been supplied to Anganwadi children this month," he said.

"If the Chief Minister had gone to Freedom Park and talked to the protestors before presenting the budget, people's problems would have come to light. About a hundred announcements from the last budget are pending and now the same has been announced again. There is no proposal to set up Jayadeva Heart Hospitals in different districts. There is also no announcement about setting up sports universities," the AAP leader said.

"There is no proposal to extend the Metro to Tumkur. No special economic zone has been declared for coconut growers. There is no special scheme related to Ethina hole, Krishna River water. There is no proposal for three-stage water treatment of NH Valley to divert water to Chikkaballapura and Kolar parts," he said.

"Chief Minister Bommai did not announce the establishment of Rajiv Gandhi Health University for political reasons. There is no proposal to create a sophisticated market for hi-tech silk, mango, coconut, cotton and arhar. The budget also did not mention about the establishment of Special Industrial Zones in districts like Kolar, Chikkaballapura, Magadi, Ramanagara, Kanakapura etc. There are no special plans to attract tourists to visit special heritage sites. No permanent solution has been planned to address the problem of wild elephants," Prithvi Reddy said.

"There is no plan in the budget to expand the IT industries to the district centres which are now limited to the metropolis. There is no proposal of grant for land acquisition for Bangalore-Chamarajanagar railway line. There is no mention of Kodagu railway line either. Before announcing the grant again to Bangalore, a white paper should have been issued regarding the billions of rupees of grants spent on Bangalore during the BJP government and how it has been spent," he added.

"No programme has been announced for the utilisation of Suvarna Soudha in Belagavi. No plan has been announced for creating the triple city - Belgaum, Hubli and Dharwad. There is no proposal to raise the height of Alamatti Dam. There is no announcement to fill 25,000 vacancies in Kalyana Karnataka and 2.5 lakh vacancies in the state. No job security has been announced for contract workers, Asha workers, Anganwadi workers, National Health Mission employees, etc," said Prithvi Reddy.