The Opposition Congress and the BJP members entered into a heated argument on poverty alleviation, as Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai hit back at the Congress members saying that “Garibi Hatao” slogan coined by former Prime Minister the late Indira Gandhi in the early 1970s had remained only a slogan.
Intervening during the debate on the State Budget for 2022-23, Mr. Bommai said “policy paralysis” and “scams” during the UPA Government headed by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the UPA Government decisions to privatise Navratnas and other Government assets had caused misery among people. The Garibi Hatao slogan had remained on paper and impoverishment had increased many fold during several decades of Congress rule, the Chief Minister said.
Earlier, Mr. Siddaramaiah blamed the Centre for reducing the State’s share in the Central pool of taxes and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Sabka Saath-Sabka Vikas-Sabka Vishwas-Sabka Prayas” has not been practiced and termed the State Budget as “anti-poor” since it has cut down all development expenditure compared to the previous years’ Budgets.
The Congress leader said the size of his last Budget, which was presented in February 2018, was ₹2.02 lakh crore while the Mr. Bommai-led Government’s Budget size was ₹2.65 lakh crore. Despite increase in the Budget size, the development expenditure to various sectors had not increased. Reduction in the central allocation for centrally sponsored schemes, cut in grant-in-aid and cuts in devolution of funds under the 15th Finance Commission by the Centre to the State were major factors for cut in expenditure and increase in the debt burden on the Government, Mr. Siddaramaiah said.
Mr. Bommai, on the other hand, insisted that the Narendra Modi-led Government had corrected the course of the Indian economy which was “left in shambles” by the Manmohan Singh-led government.
