CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOGGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI ■ ILLUSTRATION: SOURAV ROY ■ KALABURAGI  SATURDAY  FEBRUARY 17, 2024  `9.00  PAGES 14  CITY EDITION W AT E R WOMEN The ambitious Mekedatu project figured prominently in the state budget, with CM Siddaramaiah giving a push for speedy clearance. The CM also said a survey is under way to identify land and count trees that will be submerged. POWER CM Siddaramaiah allocated B23,159 crore to the energy sector, which is 6% of the total allocation. He also announced several long-term initiatives, such as increasing installed power generation capacity to 60,000MW in next seven years. The government has significantly bolstered budget allocations for women and child development for 2024-25, at a hefty B34,406 crore. The surge in allocation is notable even within CM Siddaramaiah’s own tenure. Good news for tipplers! Prices of IML, beer to dip SIDDU DELIVERING WELFARE SCHEMES ON BORROWED MONEY INSIDE URBAN MOBILITY TO BE IMPROVED I P2 D2,90,531 D55,877 D24,974 Revenue expenditure Capital expenditure TOTAL OUTLAY OF BUDGET Chief Minister Siddaramaiah greets fellow legislators, as he presents the state budget for fiscal 2024-25, in Vidhana Soudha, Bengaluru, on Friday | EXPRESS A3,71,383 * 1,24,593 3,307 6,688 9,963 10,424 13,334 15,145 16,170 18,155 19,179 19,777 21,160 23,159 34,406 44,422 Others Animal Husbandry & Fisheries Agriculture & Horticulture Food & Civil Supplies Public Works Social Welfare Health & Family Welfare Revenue Urban Development & Housing Irrigation Home & Transport RDPR Energy Women & Child Dpt Education B O S K Y K H A N N A @ Bengaluru CHIEF Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday announced several measures to ease Bengaluru’s traffic and improve its image. Presenting the state budget, he said steps will be taken to strengthen the city’s public transport sys- tem, improve roads, address water and air pollution and digitise property records. Importance will be given to develop Bengaluru as a tourism hub. Siddaramaiah said the property tax collection target will be increased, and advertisement and floor area ratio (FAR) policies re- UNIT TO BUST FAKE NEWS ANNOUNCED I P4 vised. Shops and other business establishments will be allowed to remain open till 1am in Bengaluru and 10 other civic corporations. “To make Bengaluru a world class city, the Brand Bengaluru concept and major reforms have been introduced,” the CM said and announced that the proposed CM: NO MINORITY APPEASEMENT I P5 tunnel road project (Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar’s proposal) will be taken up on a pilot basis in Hebbal. Justifying the need for the tunnel project, Siddaramaiah said it would be difficult to widen roads in Bengaluru due to scarcity of land and acquisition P2 problems. LACED WITH LIES, SAY OPPN PARTIES I P5 Govt-farmer talks +ve, next round on Sunday H A R P R E E T B A J W A @ Chandigarh TEST WICKETS AND THE LEGEND GROWS The milestone finally came on Thursday when India’s R Ashwin dismissed England’s Zak Crawley to reach his 500th Test wicket — the second Indian to reach the magic figure after Anil Kumble (619 wkts). His record is crazy. England were 207/2 in reply to India’s 445 I P13 ASHWIN WITHDRAWN In a late night development, the Indian cricket board said that the Tamil Nadu spinner had been withdrawn from the rest of the Test due to medical emergency in the family. Tear gas being fired upon the protesting farmers at the Shambhu border during the Samyukta Kisan Morcha’s Bharat Bandh in Patiala district on Friday | PTI ture minister Arjun Munda. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, who also took part in the talks, said consensus has been achieved on various points but some important issues are pending, which he said will be resolved soon. Farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher said the Union minis- ters sought more time to decide on the MSP issue. “We want a positive result and do not want any confrontation. We are staying back at the borders. Otherwise, our plan to march to Delhi will continue,” he said. Meanwhile, Haryana police fired tear gas shells to disperse protesting farmers when they moved towards the barricades at the Shambhu border. In a separate incident, 63-year-old Gian Singh from Gurdaspur, who was protesting at the Shambhu border died of heart attack on Friday morning. The Bharat Bandh called by some unions had a mixed reaction in Punjab and Haryana. Trust vote ahead of Kejri’s court date A N U P V E R M A @ New Delhi DELHI Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday moved a confidence motion in the Assembly a day before he is to ap, pear before a local court for ignoring five summonses from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the excise policy case. The discussion on the motion will be held on Saturday AAP . is set to win the trust vote comfortably as it has 62 MLAs while the opposition BJP has eight, seven of whom have been suspended for the rest of the session for interrupting Lt Governor V K Saxena’s speech in the Assembly on Thursday . The ED has already sent its sixth summons to Kejriwal asking him to appear on Monday Siddaramaiah, Chief Minister This is a hopeless budget on all fronts and there is no vision for development of the state contrary to what was claimed by Congress leaders. This budget fails to instill confidence in the public R Ashoka, LoP Tunnel rd, skydeck to make B’luru ‘world class’ HEALING TOUCH, CANCER CARE GETS A FILLIP I P4 THE third round of talks between farmers and the Centre ended on a positive note with resolution emerging on many sticking points, sources said, but no breakthrough could be achieved as some outstanding issues are yet to be sorted out. The next round of talks will be held on Sunday evening. Till then, the farmers will stay put at the Punjab-Haryana border. The five-hour marathon talks, which started on Thursday night, continued till the wee hours on Friday “We had a . positive discussion with the farmer leaders,” said agricul- Loan repayment We are marching ahead towards setting a new example of Karnataka model of development founded on the principles of justice, equality and fraternity enshrined in our Constitution GROSS ALLOCATION IN `CRORE CHIEF Minister Siddaramaiah presented a Rs 3,71,383 crore state budget for 2024-25 with a continued focus on welfare programmes and an eye on the Lok Sabha polls in the coming months. The welfare programmes are set to receive an allocation of around Rs 1.20 lakh crore. His 15th budget, eighth as CM — and the first ever with the picture of the Preamble of the Indian Constitution on a Karnataka budget copy cover — was a deficit budget, the borrowing crossing Rs 1 lakh crore, the highest ever. In his longest budget speech of 3.15 hours, Siddaramaiah (who holds the finance portfolio) revealed that their borrowing increased by close to Rs 19,428 crore compared to 2023-24, while capital outlay (to create assets) increased only by Rs 1,671 crore this year. Interestingly, the CM’s budget has increased allocation to social services by Rs 22,613 crore compared to 202324. This indicates that Siddaramaiah’s borrowing might be flowing to welfare schemes. “Though I have presented a revenue deficit budget, I have increased the budgetary allocation for welfare programmes to Rs 1.20 lakh crore,” he said, adding that he is confident of achieving revenue surplus after next two years as projected in the Medium-term Fiscal Policy (MTFP). The CM tried to stress his budget by providing more funds for programmes for women, youth, SC/ST and backward, besides Bengaluru development. The CM claimed that his budget maintained fiscal discipline that is limited under Karnataka Fiscal Responsibility Act 2022. Defending the guarantee schemes, the CM said they estimated Rs 52,000 crore for the schemes this year. “Through the guarantee schemes, an average of Rs 50,000 to Rs 55,000 is transferred to each family per year. Implementation of guarantee schemes has brought us admiration from the entire world,” he said. With an eye on mobilising funds and increasing revenues, Siddaramaiah announced that shops and establishments will be allowed to remain open till 1 am in Bengaluru and 10 other corporation areas. He also increased tax collection targets in some sectors for 202425, setting a target of Rs 1.10 lakh crore for the commercial tax department as compared to Rs 1.01 lakh crore last year; while for the excise department, it is Rs 38,525 crore against Rs 36,000 crore in 202324. One per cent “fire cess” will be levied on property tax of newly constructed multistoried buildings, the funds from which would be used to increase efficiency in the fire and emergenP5 cy services department. B IN CRORE CM presents deficit budget; Borrowing at D1 lakh crore the highest ever; More funds for programmes for women, youth, SC/STs, backward classes; D52,000 crore for guarantees A S H W I N I M S R I PA D @ Bengaluru for questioning in connection with the scam. Speaking in the Assembly, Kejriwal reiterated there was no scam in excise policy He al. leged that attempts were being made to poach AAP MLAs and topple his government by registering false cases and arresting its leaders one after another. Tabling the motion, Kejriwal said he wants to show how BJP’s ‘Operation Lotus’ has failed in Delhi. A few operatives recently approached seven AAP MLAs asking them to join the BJP for which they will receive `25 crore and an election ticket, he alleged. All AAP MLAs rejected the offer, he added. Leader of the opposition Ramvir Singh Bidhuri said he was surprised that Kejriwal was tabling a confidence motion alleging the BJP was trying to poach his MLAs. So far, he has not given any evidence to the police, which is probing the matter. The police has already requested him to provide proof to substantiate the charges, he said. Today Kejriwal has to appear , before the local court, which last week said that he was “legally bound” to respond to ED’s summonses in person and that his failure to do so is prima facie an offence under Section 174 of IPC. The ED alleges that the excise policy was tweaked to siphon funds for AAP leaders and the party . CM Siddaramaiah has announced Karnataka Raitha Samruddhi Yojane, bringing new hope for farmers who have been battered by drought and floods. The CM also allocated B6,688 crore for agriculture and horticulture. NAVALNY PUTIN RIVAL DIES Russian opposition leader and fiercest critic of President Vladimir Putin died in prison on Friday. He was 47. After a walk, he lost consciousness. An ambulance arrived to resuscitate him, but he could not be revived. Navalny’s team, however, said it has no confirmation of his death I P11 With this budget, Siddaramaiah has laid the foundation for the destruction of the state. HD Kumaraswamy, JDS state president NAUSHAD BIJAPUR @ Belagavi PRICES of beer and Indian-Made Liquor (IML), which are high in Karnataka when compared to other states, are set to come down. The state government has decided to revise the prices of several brands of liquor and beer “to rationalise the tax slabs and make them competitive with neighbouring states,” CM Siddaramaiah said while presenting the state budget on Friday. This means, prices of several liquor brands will be on par with those in other states. “Currently, prices of some premium brands of liquor and beer are high in Karnataka compared to the neighbouring states. To prevent people of Karnataka from bringing liquor from other states, the government will revise its prices. The prices of most brands of liquor and beer will be less when compared to other states when the budget is approved,’’ a source in the Excise Department said. However, the government will have to ensure that this move would not affect excise revenue collection, the source added. As against the tax revenue of Rs 28,181 crore collected in 2023-24 till January the , state gover nment has fixed a target of Rs 38,525 crore for the next fiscal. Siddaramaiah said all services of the Excise Department will be digitised, and timelines will be fixed for various services. `850 CR TO EDUCATION SECTOR FOR INFRA UPGRADE I P6 Cong a/cs frozen, defrozen in hours crore has been frozen. The `115 crore is much more than what HOURS after the Congress an- we have in our current acnounced that its main accounts counts,” the party said. Earlier in the day senior Con, were frozen, the Income Tax department on Friday granted it gress leader and treasurer Ajay temporary relief by lifting the Maken told a press conference that the IT department freeze till a final had frozen four main hearing by its appelaccounts of the Conlate tribunal next gress and the Youth Wednesday. The acCongress on frivolous counts were frozen and flimsy g rounds on a tax demand of leaving the party with `210 crore for 2018-19 no money to pay bills as penalty for a 45and salaries. “T he day delay in filing BANKS TOLD crowdfunding money in returns and cash conTO PAY UP our accounts has been tributions from its lawmakers, said the Sharing two such frozen just two weeks party. It appealed I-T notices sent to before elections. When against the demand its bankers — Bank the opposition’s acto the Income Tax of Baroda and SBI counts are frozen, it is Appellate Tribunal — Maken said the equivalent to freezing tax authorities d e m o c r a c y, ” s a i d (ITAT). In its order, the tri- directed them to Maken. pay them B135 “Since 2019 was an bunal directed the crore and B75 election year, the Conparty to ensure that the accounts have a crore respectively gress submitted receipts as income tax of `199 crore spent on minimum deposit of dues from the the elections. Of this `115 crore as lien. In a video message, Congress accounts amount `14.40 lakh had Congress Rajya Sab- with them. The been deposited in cash ha MP Vivek Tankha, notice also held by some Congress MPs the bankers and MLAs from their who appeared before the ITAT, said the tri- personally liable salaries,” said Maken for paying the adding that it was shockbunal defroze the accounts and will hear amount to the tax ing that the IT departauthorities ment had imposed a the matter next penalty of `210 crore on Wednesday before the cash deposit of `14.40 lakh. taking the final call. “On our petition, the IT de- In his pushback, Congress leadpartment and the ITAT said we er Rahul Gandhi said, “Don’t have to ensure that `115 crore is be scared, Congress is not the kept in the banks. Any amount party whose strength is money over and above `115 crore can power, its strength is people’s be spent. This means that `115 power.” P R E E T H A N A I R @ New Delhi