Fulfilment troubles for Karnataka Congress government 

By Dr Duggaraju Srinivasa Rao

Many factors are attributed to the emphatic victory of Congress in the Karnataka state elections. But the main factor which gave such a huge mandate, undoubtedly, is the promises they made in the form of welfare. Their big five welfare guarantees are designed to touch every section of the society. That the electorate of Karnataka are so eager to get the promised benefits that they are not even giving Siddaramaiah led Congress government to breathe easy and settle down in the secretariat. They demand the fulfilment of the promises in their entirety and not in bits and parts as the Congress wants to do. Because of that CM Siddaramaiah and his deputy D.K. Siva Kumar are under pressure from day one of the oath.

The pressure exertion by the Karnataka electorate is understandable as they know the track record on the fulfillment of the promises of earlier Congress governments that includes the Siddaramaiah headed government of 2013-18 is not so great. The Congressover the decades is more known to rise the ambitions of the electorate during the campaign and then forget those promises once given power. That was its DNA ever since its famous slogan of GaribiHatao. A senior Congress leader from Hyderabad once confessed that in his party there are “more slogans rather than policies”. Now it is obviously troubling the Siddaramaiah as questions are being raised, in the social media of Karnataka, on the important promise of “mercilessly recover the losses, the mining companies has caused to the state exchequer”.

That promise was made basing on the LokAyuktha report on illegal mining. As per the report nearly three crore tons of illegal ore had been transported out of the state causing loss of 12,228 crores to the exchequer. With the LokAyuktha report in hand,Siddaramaiah, then in opposition, conducted a padayatra to the notorious illegal mining area of Bellary, the mining district controlled by GaliJanardhana Reddy. This single anti-graft movement of Congress has fetched the party power in Karnataka and Siddaramaih the CM chair. He was in the CM chair for full five years but the only action he took on the illegal mining was the appointment of a sub-committee headed by senior minister H.K. Patil. The sub-committee revised the loss to Karnataka exchequer to 1.43 lakh crores and recommended the recovery from the illegal miners. Siddaramaiah sat over the LokAyuktha report and also that of sub-committee during his term. He totally forgot what he promised.

Having experienced his earlier convenient forgetfulness of Siddaramaiah and his party Congress, this time around in 2023 the electorate are extra cautious to exert pressure on the government to fulfill their promises without delay as Congress is prone to forgetfulness on its promises.

The total cost of the promises made by Congress party to win the mandate is approximately 1 lakh crores per year, exactly the same amount Siddaramaiah promised to recover from illegal miners in the 2013 election campaign. While the total annual lay out of the Karnataka state is pegged at 3 to 3.5 lakh crores, which means every year one third of its budget has to be spend on the promised freebies.

The reckless freebie promises include theGruhaJyothi scheme which offered free electricity up to 200 units per house,YuvaNidhi offered unemployment dole of Rs. 1500-3,000 per month to all,Shakthi Scheme of free bus ride for women, monthly payment to the woman head of the familyunder Gruha Lakshmi and free ration to the eligible under the Anna Bhagya scheme. There is some issues in small print to these promises and they are coming out into open as people demanded early implementation of the welfare schemes. One thing is sure that implementation of these freebies is certainly going to have some riders to lessen the number of beneficiaries.

The Congress seems to have in its hurry, to come back to power in Karnataka, has not made the needed calculations on the promises while drafting their manifesto. Now, the actual expenditure involved for the freebies vis a vis the financial position of the state is staring at them. Siddaramaiah, the CM, is credit with presenting 15 budgets for the state and having an idea on the financial implications of the promised schemes and the high command in Delhi is confident that freebie on the lines of Karnataka will help them at the national level to ride to power.

As of now the Karnataka Congress government is in the process of announcing the dates for rolling out their welfare schemes while the concerned officials are struggling to find out means to please their political masters and the implementation of their pet freebie schemes. Then comes all sorts of riders. For example under the promised free electricity they are introducing a complicated calculation of averages. The households will get the benefit provided the quantum f average consumption remains the same or less than what it was over the last one year. It will woke out for example that a consumer whose average monthly consumption over the last one year was 80 units, becomes eligible for free power up to 90 units. If his consumption exceeds 90 units then the differential units will be charged with the ceiling being 200 units. Any consumer who consumes more than 200 units will become ineligible for the free power scheme and have to pay the entire bill amount. This all means that not first 200 units are free for all but conditions do apply to get this benefit. How te government is going to subsides the loss of revenue for the electricity boards which are already in poor financial position. The consumers who are consuming above 200 units are worried as they fear that ultimately the burden will be thrown on them with the enhanced unit rate, which is inevitable.

The unemployed youth are agitated on the twists the Siddaramaiah government is giving for the YuvaNidhi scheme. Here, post victory. The Congress government stratified the unemployed by saying that they will pay Rs. 3000 for unemployed graduates while diploma holders are offered Rs. 1500 despite being the cost of living is the same despite their academic differences. The unemployment dole will be given for those who received diplomas and degrees in 2022-23 and not for those who got qualified earlier. Age restriction of 18-25 is introduced for the dole and this dole receiving is restricted for two years, post qualification, only. It is a clever way of Congress to use the youth during voting and then throwing out immediately.

The free bus travel for woman is a worrying promise as 45 lakh women travelers of all ages are allowed to travel anywhere in the state free of cost barring some restrictions on the use of higher end travel buses. The five Karnataka state road transport corporations which are already under financial strain will see the sudden drop of daily income. According to the road Transport Corporation to implement this Shakthi scheme they require purchase of over 4,000 new buses and needs another 13,000 employees to maintain those newly acquired buses. With escalating diesel costs and maintenance cost this scheme is going to be a disaster and hit the state financially thus crippling the state transport system.

The Anna Bhagya scheme needs additional expenditure of Rs.10, 000crores per year. The Gruha Lakshmi scheme where Rs.2000 a month is promised to every women head of the family is a complicated one as the women heads have to submit their claim, with evidence and the details of Bank account and Aadhar before August 15. This is going out to be humungous challenge in Karnataka’s dominant patriarchal society.

It is in this backdrop that the Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is going to present his maiden budget in his second innings. Will he come out with some innovative financial management and better the Karnataka or with focus on please all schemes will sink the state financially is what not only Karnataka but the entire nation is waiting to see.

(The views expressed are personal)