Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said politics does not come in the way of development in his administration. Congress government, under his leadership, will give attention to all sections of society, he said after inaugurating government works and laying the foundation stone for a few works in Hassan on Friday, March 1.
The CM said, irrespective of the party the MLAs belong to, he would grant funds for development. “Neither Modi nor I spend personal money on development. We collect tax from the public and spend the same for them,” he said.
In his latest Budget, the CM said he enhanced the total outlay by ₹62,000 crores compared to the previous Budget. “The increase in the total Budget by such a huge amount itself is an indication that the government is giving importance to development work. For the coming year, we have earmarked ₹1.20 lakh crore for development works. As much as ₹52,900 crore is being spent to fulfil the guarantee schemes,” he said. The guarantee schemes have contributed to the collection of GST in Karnataka. “Now Karnataka is number one in GST collection,” he said.
The people of Karnataka have been making better use of the guarantee schemes. In Hassan district alone, women have utilised the benefits of the Shakti scheme more than five crore times, incurring an expense to the tune of over ₹166 crores, he said.
Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, Ministers K.N. Rajanna, Byrathi Suresh, N. Cheluvarayaswamy, legislators K.M. Shivalinge Gowda, C.N. Balakrishna, H.P. Swaroop and Marithibbe Gowda, and officers were present.
