BENGALURU: The State Sports and Youth Empowerment Ministry’s ambitious plan of making Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for ‘Fit India’ a reality is set to hit a roadblock as Karnataka is facing a fund crunch. A proposal to set up one gym per gram panchayat at an estimated cost of Rs 1,000 crore to encourage fitness among rural masses is unlikely to get any allocation in the budget, scheduled to be placed by Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on March 5.
Youth Empowerment and Sports Minister C T Ravi, who took over the additional charge of the department just two weeks ago, said that the proposal has been made to the Chief Minister but it is unlikely to get a go-ahead. “Estimates for the proposal is Rs 1,000 crore. That is almost eight times the department’s scheduled annual budget,” Ravi said, adding that the proposal was sent even before he took charge of the ministry. Maintaining that the chief minister has responded neither in the negative nor positive on any of the requisitions placed during budget consultation meetings, Ravi said that all three ministries under him — Tourism, Kannada and Culture and Youth Empowerment and Sports — expect an increase in capital outlay as a basic minimum.
While ministers have been told that there will be no cuts in outlays for departments, Ravi pointed out that the Kannada and Culture Ministry suffered a Rs 30 crore cut out of its Rs 150 crore outlay in budget 2019-2020 presented by the previous coalition government already. Any further cuts, the minister worried, will impact day-to-day activities of the department, including salaries of officials. The Kannada and Culture Department is tasked with organising three national- level events -- Dasara, Hampi Utsava and Bengaluru Habba, and nine state-level fests along with 18 district-level utsavas.
Appropriate funds have been sought for the events, ministry officials suggested. Money has also been sought to build Ranga Mandiras in 16 districts that lack them currently. In the run-up to the budget, the Tourism Ministry has asked for funds for the ‘Samrakshana scheme’ that aims to restore heritage monuments with an estimated budget of Rs 100 crore.
The ministry needs another Rs 400 crore for comprehensive development of top 10 tourist destinations out of 319 across the state. Additional grants have been sought to advertise in Kerala, Gujarat and other states. “We require just the capital outlay of Rs 400 crore and a total allocation of Rs 700-800 crore for Tourism and Rs 200 crore capital outlay each for Sports and Kannada and Culture departments. While the total outlay for Tourism is currently Rs 437 crore, the capital head is just about Rs 150-170 crore,” he said.