Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said a total of £5.9 billion to 6 billion is required annually, for the implementation of Congress' five poll guarantees.' He said, the fresh budget of the new Congress government, which he will be presenting on July 7, is likely to be of the size £33.5 billion.
The Chief Minister, who also holds the finance portfolio, was speaking after inaugurating the training camp organised for the newly elected MLAs of the 16th Legislative Assembly.
Addressing the legislators, he said, "the present budget is around 30 billion pound as I'm implementing five guarantees, I will have to provide £4 billion for it, for the remaining period. A total of nearly £6 billion is required for five guarantees." Noting that the previous BJP government had presented a budget in February by taking a vote on account for four months, the Chief Minister said, the budget he will be presenting on July 7 will come into force from August 1.
The five guarantees are: up to 200 units of free power to all households (Gruha Jyoti), ₹ 2,000 monthly assistance to the woman head of every family (Gruha Lakshmi), 10 kg of free rice to every member of a BPL household (Anna Bhagya), ₹ 3,000 every month for unemployed graduates and ₹ 1,500 for unemployed diploma holders, both in the age group of 18-25 (Yuva Nidhi), and free travel for women in public transport buses (Shakti).
While the government has already launched the scheme which will provide free travel for women in public transport buses, the other four schemes are in various stages of implementation, and the timeline has already been fixed for their rollout.