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.
On the increase of special grants to KKRDB to ₹3,000 crore, Mr. Khandre questioned what would be the use of mere announcing an increased amount on paper and making no effort to spend the money on ground.
“The KKRDB had spent only ₹400 crore out ₹1500 crore sanctioned for the year 2020-21 and ₹280 crore of ₹1,500 crore released for the year 2021-22. There are 338 projects that have not yet started even after all the approvals. There are hundreds of projects that have been in progress for years... The KKRDB is made so weak that it is not in the position to utilise the money allocated to it. Now, the Chief Minister has increased the special grant to ₹3,000 crore. The end result will be that the KKRDB will not utilise even half of the amount allocated to it and the State government will not release the rest of the amount till the released amount is spent,” Mr. Khandre said, criticising the government for showing little interest to fill around 22,000 posts lying vacant in Education Department in the region.
