Budget did not address the sections of society that were impacted by the demonetisation move: Siddaramaiah

BENGALURU: Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah said the Union budget presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley did not address the sections of society that were impacted by the demonetisation move and there were no big-ticket programmes to help the poor, the farmers and the small scale sector to tide over the cash crunch crisis.

“Over Rs 15 lakh crore has come back into the banking system. The actual black money weeded out is a mere 0.0022 per cent of the total cash that was in circulation,” Siddaramaiah, who holds the finance portfolio in Karnataka, said at a media conference. “The corporate houses and black money hoarders have not been touched at all. It is the farmer, the poor, the labourer and the small scale sector that suffered due to demonetisation. But the FM has not made any effort to help them in this budget. After two-and-a-half years and three budgets, we are still waiting for achche din.”

Siddaramaiah said allocations for agriculture credit, MNREGA, irrigation and the rural sector was not much more than last year’s. “Several states including Karnataka are suffering from drought. I had asked the FM to waive farm loans taken from nationalised banks and said I would waive co-operative loans. I had made this request on behalf of all drought-hit states, but the FM has not responded to that,” he rued.

He acknowledged that the FM’s move to limit political funding y limiting donations from a single person to Rs 2,000, a plunge from the earlier sanctioned Rs 20,000. He, however, did not comment on whether thsi was good or bad.