This Article is From Mar 21, 2012

Congress terms Karnataka Budget as old wine in new bottle

Bangalore: Congress in Karnataka today said the budget presented by Chief Minister D V Sadananada Gowda was not growth-oriented and there were no new programmes and schemes for the state.

Talking to reporters, Siddaramaiah, Opposition Leader in the state assembly, claimed that the performance of the previous budget, presented by former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, was disappointing as the contributions made by agricultural and industrial sectors to the GDP had dropped to minus three per cent.

"Except the service sector, there is a little increase compared to last year," Siddaramaiah said.

Despite the government holding global investors meet last year, the industry growth registered a negative growth, Siddaramaiah said.

"Therefore, the budget presented by the Chief Minister has been tinkered with...It is old wine in new bottle," he told reporters.

Predicting a negative growth rate next year, he said the separate agriculture budget has not given impetus to food production. "Food production has dropped in 2010-11."

Siddaramaiah also lambasted the government "for not spending" the allocated funds in the last budget and slammed it for "deliberately" not presenting the performance budget as it is required to do under Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2002.

"Presentation of annual budget along with performance budget would have exposed the government's sincerity towards development," he said.
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