The State Budget for Karnataka will be presented by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah today at noon. This will be the first budget since Congress took control of the state following its resounding victory in the state’s assembly elections on May 10. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has arrived at Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru to present the state budget. Karnataka Minister HK Patil said, “People have a lot of expectations and confidence in us. The Congress party has built that credibility in Karnataka and in the country. I am sure that we will be able to deliver. People will appreciate the budget.”
This is Siddaramaiah’s seventh Budget as a Chief Minister, having presented six during his tenure as Karnataka CM from 2013 to 2018.
Earlier, CM Siddaramaiah announced that all five guarantees will be implemented in the current financial year at a cost of approximately Rs 50,000 crore every year.
“We had a long consultation. It will be given in this financial year itself,” Siddaramaiah said earlier in the month. The five ‘main’ guarantees, which Congress promised to fulfil after coming to power in Karnataka, were 200 units of free power to all households (Gruha Jyoti); Rs 2,000 monthly assistance to the woman head of every family (Gruha Lakshmi); 10 kg of rice free to every member of a BPL household (Anna Bhagya); Rs 3,000 every month for unemployed graduate youth and Rs 1,500 for unemployed diploma holders (both in the age group of 18-25) for two years (vuva Nidhi) and free travel for women in public transport buses (Uchita Prayana).