BENGALURU: A day after the special legislature session concluded, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah began full-fledged preparations to present the state budget, which is likely to be tabled on March 6. On Thursday, the CM held a series of meetings with ministers and senior officers from various departments.
The CM’s marathon meetings started at 11 am and went on till 6 pm, where he interacted with authorities from the forest, environment and ecology, law and parliamentary affairs, tourism, horticulture, mines and geology, labour, home, Kannada and culture, backward classes, and higher education departments, along with the ministers concerned.
Amid buzz over leadership change, Siddaramaiah has started preparations to present his record 17th budget. Sources from the Chief Minister’s Office said that Siddaramaiah will hold similar meetings with other departments till February 11. He is also reviewing the grants announced in the previous budget and the funds spent, and has received numerous new proposals.
The CM will be meeting ministers and officials from various departments, including scheduled tribes welfare, youth and sports, e-governance, medical education, skill development, infrastructure, large and medium industries, information technology and biotechnology and rural development and panchayat raj.
The CM, on Friday, was scheduled to visit Mandya for an event related to a temple followed by a meeting with district officials. He, however, cancelled it to hold Day 2 of meetings with various departments.
Meanwhile, there is buzz that the State Government is going to increase water tariff in Bengaluru. The CM is also looking for revenue mobilisation and set a new target for the next year’s budget. CMO sources said that the budget this year will grant more funds to Bengaluru and also rural Karnataka as elections to the Greater Bengaluru Authority and panchayat will be conducted this year.
Siddaramaiah had presented a budget of Rs 4.09 lakh crore in 2025, while the budget outlay for the financial year 2024-25 was Rs 3.71 lakh crore. Sources said this year, the budget size is expected to be between Rs 4.5 lakh crore and Rs 4.6 lakh crore. “We will get the draft size only after the meetings with all the departments conclude, where they will present their proposals,” sources added.
GIVE EDUCATION PRIORITY IN BUDGET: ACTIVIST
Bengaluru: With the State Budget 2026-27 approaching on March 6, education activist Dr Niranjanaradhya VP has written to Chief Minister Siddaramaih urging him to allocate sufficient funds for the education sector and fill all vacant posts in the Department of School and Literacy.
He said the CM should allocate at least 10% of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) for education this year and announce a blue-map plan for full implementation of RTE for the next five years. Emphasising the need for an adequate number of well qualified teachers in the department, Niranjanaradhya has urged to fill more than 62,500 vacant posts of teachers across the state.
“Guest teachers work on a contractual basis without any service security and receive five to six times less salary than permanent teachers. This not only has a bad impact on the quality of education but also creates a large level of inequality,” he said.