Karnataka - Bangalore   

Not enough funds provided for irrigation: Siddaramaiah

Staff Reporter

In thelegislature Criticises reduction in allocation for power, health and education

Bangalore: The former Deputy Chief Minister Siddaramaiah (Congress) on Friday said if projects such as Kabini Second Stage had received more funding, the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal would have had to assess the requirement of the Kabini achkat at more than 12 tmcft.

The Planning Commission had fixed investment on irrigation projects at Rs. 25,000 crore for the 11th Plan. Accordingly, the Finance Department should have set apart at least Rs. 5,000 crore in the first year, but only Rs. 3,047 crore was provided under the capital account and Rs. 82 crore under the revenue account, totalling Rs. 3,129 crore.

Participating in the discussion on the Budget, he criticised the reduction in the allocation for power, health, education and measures aimed at ensuring social justice. It showed the lack of concern of the coalition Government for the uplift of the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and minorities, he said.

Referring to budgets presented by the former Chief Minister S.M. Krishna and him in the recent past to prove his point, Mr. Siddaramaiah said the plan allocation for creating permanent assets had come down to 17.69 per cent from 29.04 per cent. At least Rs. 20,000 crore should have been set apart for the purpose.

Power sector

He was equally critical of the allocation for the power sector. No funds had been earmarked for reducing transmission and distribution losses and the State was faced with a shortage of 2,000 MW. He said subsidised power was being supplied to farms with swimming pools coming up on the outskirts of Bangalore, Mysore and other cities.

The senior Congress leader M. Mallikarjun Kharge said Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa had announced many programmes but adequate funds had not been provided for them.

He found fault with the separate allocation of funds for religious institutions catering for various castes. Earlier, funds for such purposes were routed through the Muzrai Department, Mr. Kharge said.

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