BJP confident of retaining Udupi-Chikmagalur Lok Sabha seat

Bengaluru, Mar 4: CM BS Yediyurappa may reconsider plans to hike taxes and curtail populist schemes in his budget on Thursday as the Centre released part of GST compensation it owes the state. Officials said the Centre released the first instalment of the bimonthly compensation for October-November amounting to Rs 2,013 crore.

"This is welcome relief as the government has been scrambling to mobilise funds," said BT Manohar, member of GST consultative committee, government of Karnataka. The second instalment of Rs 1,523 crore is also expected to be released soon.

The CM, in his seventh budget, is expected keep the focus firmly on farmers and give top priority to irrigation, agriculture and welfare schemes.

The irrigation sector is expected to land the lion's share with an allocation of at least Rs 25,000 crore, followed by agriculture. Former CM Kumaraswamy had allocated over Rs 17,000 crore for water resources.

The bulk of funds is likely to go to the Upper Krishna (UKP) and Upper Bhadra projects, as it will help backward Kalyana Karnataka and central Karnataka regions. The two are also significant political blocs. The government will also seek assistance from the Centre for the UKP project in the erstwhile Hyderabad-Karnataka region, which enjoys special status under the Constitution owing to its backwardness. P4

Yediyurappa is also expected to spell out populist schemes for the poor.

Former CM HD Kumaraswamy had allocated Rs 17,212 crore in the previous budget for water resources and Yediyurappa is likely to go well beyond that figure. "Priority will be given to irrigation and farmers," Yediyurappa had said recently. "I am making efforts to present a budget within the financial constraints."

he amounts are released once every two months, but the Centre had fallen behind on payments. PX

"There are indications that another payment will be made."

The state's optimism stems from the fact that the Centre's GST collection crossed the Rs 1 lakh crore-mark for four successive months till February.

However, the CM could still hike tax rates marginally. At a pre-budget meet on resource mobilisation where Yediyurappa is learnt to have expressed willingness to borrow funds, officials from the finance department advocated raising tax rates instead.

Bengaluru, Jul 9: Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Thursday said the Covid-19 situation was “getting out of control a little” in some parts of the state, but assured citizens that authorities were taking necessary steps. 

“In some districts, it’s getting out of control a little. But the district administration and police are working day and night,” Yediyurappa said before the Cabinet meeting where the Covid-19 situation will be discussed. 

Speculation is rife that the government might consider stricter measures to curb the movement of people to try arresting the rising number of Covid-19 cases. 

Later in the day, Yediyurappa is slated to inspect the Bengaluru International Exhibition Centre, which has been converted into a Covid Care Centre with 10,000 beds. The chief minister said he had ordered “immediate” arrangement of more ambulances for Bengaluru, where cases are rapidly shooting up. 

“A team from the Centre had come. They’ve made some observations and they also appreciated us for some of the things we’ve done,” he added. 

On Friday, Yediyurappa has convened a meeting of all Bengaluru ministers, legislators, MPs and councillors to discuss the Covid-19 pandemic in the city.

Bengaluru, Jul 15: Karnataka on Wednesday reported 3,176 new cases taking the total count of cases in the state to 47,253.

A total of 1,975 new cases were reported from the Bengaluru alone, the state's health department said.

The toll has gone up to 928 with 87 deaths reported today.

The total count of COVID-19 cases in the country is 9,36,181.