On 11th July, Basavaraj Rayareddy, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s financial advisor said that the state lacks funds for development projects due to guarantee schemes. The crisis arose as enormous amounts of funds had to be set aside for Congress’ freebies.
Speaking at an event at Mangaluru village in Yelburga taluk in Koppal district, Rayareddy said: “Many MLAs are demanding funds for development works in their constituencies, however, there is no money with the government. We are spending approximately Rs 65,000 crore on guarantee schemes. Since I am the financial advisor, I somehow manage to get the grant for lake development project.”
“People want development. But believe me, there is absolutely no money. Since I am the financial advisor, I managed to get funds for the lake development project here,” he emphasised.
Karnataka MLAs have found it practically impossible to acquire funding for projects in their constituencies. “Internally, I know the financial stress,” stated the Yelburga MLA.
Two days ago, BJP MLA Ramesh Jarkiholi informed that the Congress government in Karnataka is taking up development projects in Bengaluru alone since it has no money left in the state exchequer. Due to this, the rest of Karnataka is being neglected.
“The main reason is that the State government has no money for such development works. It is only concentrating on Bengaluru using the little money it has. It is nothing but grave injustice,” Jarkiholi said.
The BJP MLA also alleged that the Congress government is deliberately neglecting the implementation of development schemes launched by the prior BJP government.
For example, as Irrigation Minister, I started work on the Basaveshwar and Ammajeshwari irrigation schemes in Athani. But now there is no work going on under these projects. Athani MLA Laxman Savadi joined the Congress after making great claims about developing his constituency under the Congress government,” the BJP MLA said.
Notably, the Congress government in Karnataka has been squandering freebies under its five guarantee schemes. These include Griha Jyothi, Griha Lakshmi, Anna Bhagya, Shakti Yojana, and Yuva Nidhi.
Despite these extensive promises, there has been criticism from within the Congress party regarding the effectiveness of these guarantees. Some Congress leaders have argued that the guarantees did not yield the expected electoral support, leading to calls for a reassessment of these schemes. While launching populist schemes is easy, sustaining them is a mammoth task.
