Contrary to everybody’s apprehensions the newly formed Congress government headed by Siddaramaiah neither burdened the common man by enhancing taxes nor resorted to borrowing too much to meet its five guarantees promised during the election, which is laudable. One has to wait and see how efficiently these promises are delivered without any pilferage.
However, there is a reduction in the allocation for core sectors, such as agriculture, health, education and rural development. If it is a cut on essential items rather than curtailing the wasteful expenditure, that is a cause for concern.
To meet the additional 5 kg of rice per person per month for his pet Anna Bhagya PDS scheme, he should have encouraged, through remunerative MSP, our farmers to produce more quantity of millets such as ragi and jowar and assured procurement on time.
Similarly, rather than merely repealing the amendment brought to our APMC Act by the previous government, what is actually needed is a comprehensive reform to our farm commodity marketing system, to make it competitive and efficient to ensure a remunerative price discovery for farmers’ produce.
Further strengthening his earlier flagship programme of ‘on the farm water collection and storage’ – Krishi Bhagya, farm mechanisation –Krushi Yantra Dhara, extending MGNEREGA facility to the construction of burial grounds in each of 27,000 villages, development of pasture and grassland as well as distribution of eggs, banana and peanut chikki are all steps in the right direction.
The total absence of any reference to ensuring MSP and Price Stabilisation Fund through legal recourse, which is one of the key election promises, is really baffling.