Budget today amid 100 unkept promises

CM Bommai, in 2022, made 391 announcements but govt spent only 62% of the allocations till Jan 2023

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Even as Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai prepares to roll out the State Budget for the year, many of the health plans prioritized in last year’s Budget either remain on paper or have been progressing very slowly. The CM’s first Budget had allocated 5.8 percent of the total expenditure on health initiatives. Although, six per cent is the accepted norm, it amounted to a robust Rs13,982 crores.

However, it is unclear as to how much of it has been spent, as many of Bommai’s pet projects haven’t even got off the ground. Chief among the duds has been the ‘Mukhyamantri Arogya Vahini Yojana’, which sought to deliver medical services to doorsteps in Chamarajanagara, Chikkamagaluru, Haveri and Bidar districts, transporting equipment and personnel by way of vans.

As much as Rs 11 crore had been SET aside for this purpose, but the Finance Department is yet to sanction the same. Bommai had announced the setting up of a regional cardiac centre under Jayadeva Institute of Cardiology at a cost of Rs250 crore in Hubballi city, but its construction hasn’t started. Along similar lines, the CM had sought to decentralize the treatment of cardiac ailments under Jayadeva and deliver the services at hospitals in 75 talukas but this also has been a nonstarter.

The Department of Foetal Medicine and Neonatology at Vani Vilas Hospital in Bengaluru is yet to get off the ground. So too is the case with establishment of four super-speciality hospitals in the capital. Moreover, less than 100 of the planned 500 cochlear implant surgeries for underprivileged deaf children have been carried out. Unspent National Health Mission (NHM) funds run into hundreds of crores as well.

However, Bommai can rightly claim that 222 of the 438 “Namma Clinics” targeted have been set up. The facilities were based on 'Mohalla Clinics' of Delhi. AAP, however, has maintained that fewer tests are available in the Karnataka clinics.

Nearly 39% promises from last year’s State Budget unfulfilled

In the previous year’s state Budget, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai had made some 339 promises, but government orders (GOs) have been issued for only 207 while 132 remain untouched.

Bommai, who had chosen to hold on to the finance portfolio, revealed the details in a meeting he chaired in the lead up to this year’s State Budget. Planning to woo dairy farmers in Karnataka, the CM had announced the establishment of ‘Ksheera Samruddhi Sahakara Bank’ so as to fast track loan disbursals.

However, Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) has found it to be an arduous process as Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has demanded details regarding the same, which is being complied with.The CM had also promised to upgrade seven engineering colleges to Karnataka Institute of Technology (KIT) along the lines of IITs but the colleges have not been recognized.

Another scheme that remains on paper is the ‘Stree Samarthya Scheme’, which sought to provide assistance to selfhelp groups and reach lakhs of women. The ‘Raitha Shakti’ scheme also awaits inauguration. About Rs500-crore had been allocated for the scheme.

CM faces Oppn heat on Budget eve

Even before Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai rolls out his “poll Budget” on Friday, Opposition parties have sought to reject it because 60 percent of the promises made under the previous Budget are yet to be fulfilled. Kar nataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) DK Shivakumar has been especially vocal in this reg ard as he toured Mysuru district on Thursday as part of the party’s ‘Praja Dhwani Yatre’ poll campaign.

The Kanakapura MLA demanded that Bommai produce a “report card” on the previous year’s Budget. All India Cong ress Committee (AICC) general secretary and it’s Karnataka in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala holds that the unfulfilled announcements of the State Budget was a symptom of the larger malady as “more than 90 percent of the promises made under the BJP’s manifesto remain unfulfilled.”

Months ago, the state Congress had even launched a campaign on the same titled “nimma hattira, ideya uttara?” (Do you have an answer?) as they highlighted unfulfilled promises made to marginalised communities such as SCs, Other Backward Classes (OBCs), apart from women. The party held that scholarships worth Rs4,5000 crores meant for SCs, STs and OBCs have been held back.