Taking serious exception to the use of special grants allocated to Kalyana Karnataka Region Development Board (KKRDB) for the announcement of new projects for Kalyana Karnataka in the State Budget presented by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Congress leaders said that the Budget was eyewash to the people of the region.
Addressing a media conference in Kalaburagi on Sunday, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee working president Eshwar Khandre, spokespersons Priyank Kharge and Sharan Prakash Patil, party’s Chief Whip at the Legislative Assembly Ajay Singh and others held that providing no additional funds and using special grants for the projects would defeat the very purpose of Article 371(J) of the Constitution under which the region got Special Status.
“Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai announced several projects for Kalyana Karnataka region in the Budget he presented recently. But, he had not made allocations for them. He said that the projects would be implemented with the funds allocated to KKRDB. This is not fair. The funds provided to KKRDB were the additional grants allocated to the region under Article 371(J) of the Constitution for fighting backwardness and they cannot be used for the project announced by the State government in the budget. The government should have made budgetary allocations to each project announced to Kalyana Karnataka separately just as it did with the projects announced to other regions in the State,” Mr. Khandre said.
