Bengaluru: Ending speculation over the much-talked-about farm loan waiver, Karnataka’s coalition partners yesterday declared that Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy will announce the waiver in the “full-fledged” budget to be presented on July 5.
The CM will also announce a budget of Rs. 1.25 lakh crore for irrigation, a sports policy, new schemes like 20 lakh homes for homeless, and jobs for one crore youths in the next five years.
These announcements come a day ahead of the budget session. Decisions to this effect was taken during the second Co-ordination Committee meeting of the JD(S)-Congress coalition government on Sunday.
The Committee, which met to finalise the Common Minimum Programme (CMP), has however accepted the same with “minor” changes, Committee Convenor Danish Ali said.
Highlighting the above mentioned schemes (to be implemented in the next five years), Ali told reporters that it was a consensus decision of the Committee members.
All five Committee members — former CM Siddharamaiah, CM Kumaraswamy, Deputy CM Dr. G. Parameshwara, AICC General Secretary K.C. Venugopal and Ali — were present at the meeting.
Ali said that the CMP for the government will be brought out in the form of a booklet shortly. Declining to elaborate on the framework of the loan waiver scheme, Ali said that farm loans availed from both Nationalised and Co-operative Banks would be waived.
He also said a “majority” of the flagship programmes, including Arogya Karnataka – Universal Health Coverage Scheme, will continue.
“The drafting committee of the CMP has submitted its report, and the Coordination Committee has accepted it with minor changes. There are no differences (between the coalition partners) at all. It was all created by vested interests. It is unethical to release anything discussed privately between some individuals,” he said, referring to the video clips of Siddharamaiah that had stirred the political cauldron.
This post was published on July 2, 2018 6:57 pm