BENGALURU: Financial constraints may come in the way of announcing big-ticket projects, but Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa’s budget is likely to have many novel initiatives for the people without being a burden on the state.
The chief minister, geared up to present the budget on Thursday, is likely to announce new schemes to reach out to a large section of people. One major scheme, a first of its kind, is likely to be free health check-up for labourers in unorganized sectors.
Sources in the labour department said they propose to start mobile clinics for labourers and designated vehicles will go to different industries every day, where labourers and their families can avail of free health screening.
The education department may not have any new popular scheme, but the government will definitely take teachers into consideration. To lend his ear to teachers’ woes, tech-savvy Education Minister S Suresh Kumar will have mobile app that enables teachers to directly reach out to him. A dashboard will take their messages directly to the minister. Except transfers, teachers can post their problems to the minister.
The food and civil supplies department, though planning to cut the Anna Bhagya scheme to 5kg rice from the original 7kg, plans to add more groceries instead, like sugar, oil and dal to help BPL cardholder families.
The urban development department is focusing on installing LED streetlights in all town and city municipalities. At present, cities have LED streetlights. “If we instal LED streetlights, we can save power and cut our electricity bill,’’ sources said. The CM is also likely to announce CCTV cameras for a few municipalities, which will be covered for vigilance. Minister Byrathi Basavaraju is keen on providing 24x7 drinking water supply to a few corporations.
A source in the Chief Minister’s Office said this budget is challenging for Yediyurappa as there is shortage of funds. He is likely to cut allocation of funds for many sectors, that might not be accepted by the departments concerned. “To balance this, he will announce schemes or projects that will benefit larger sections of society, but these schemes might not be a burden on the state government. It could be done with a lower outlay or with the help of private companies on the PPP model,” a source said.