Two Karnataka Ministers call for tweaking ‘guarantee schemes’ to benefit only poor

PTI, Aug 14, 2024, 5:57 PM IST

Bengaluru: Two Ministers in the Congress government on Wednesday raised the pitch to tweak its much-touted ‘guarantee schemes’ to benefit only the economically-weaker sections to lessen the financial burden.

Public Works Minister Satish Jarkiholi said the state exchequer will be able to save at least Rs 10,000 crore annually by excluding the rich from the schemes, which were pre-poll promises of the party.

According to political analysts, these promises played a key part in the Congress storming to power, dethroning the BJP, in the Assembly elections in May last year. However, the schemes failed to sway the voters in this year’s Lok Sabha elections, in which the party bagged only nine seats of the total 28 in the State with the rest going to the BJP-JD(S) combine.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had, while presenting the state budget earlier this year, announced that Rs. 52,000 crore has been set aside for the five guarantee schemes during 2024-25.

“Through the five guarantee schemes, we are putting Rs.52,000 crore in the hands of crores (millions) of people… an average of Rs.50,000 to Rs.55,000 is transferred to each family every year through these guarantee schemes,” Siddaramaiah had said.

Speaking to reporters here, Jarkiholi said: “I am not saying that they (guarantees) should be stopped. People are saying that these guarantees should be given to the poor and not the rich people. This is being discussed in hotels, among workers and everywhere.”

” Even the opposition is asking, ‘Why are you giving to the rich?’ Give it to the poor,” he said.

The government has implemented its five poll guarantees – free ride for Karnataka women in non-luxury government buses under ‘Shakti’ scheme, free electricity up to 200 units for domestic consumers under ‘Gruha Jyoti’, ‘Yuva Nidhi’ for unemployed graduates and diploma holders offering Rs 3,000 and Rs 1,500 a month for two years, ‘Gruha Lakshmi’ scheme which gives Rs 2,000 to women head of the BPL families and ‘Anna Bhagya’ scheme offering 10 kg of free food grains to each BPL family member.

On whether revising the schemes would have a bearing on the popularity of the government, Jarkiholi said: “Who is scrapping them (guarantees)? We are not stopping it. It cannot be done outright. There is a Cabinet and legislative party. These decisions have to be taken at that level, not at my level. Party has to decide.”

Minister for Large and Medium Industries and Infrastructure M B Patil said these guarantees are the Congress party’s commitment and hence they will be continued.

He, however, supported the idea of giving the benefit of these guarantees only to the BPL families and not others.

“We have 82 per cent BPL families in the state. The objective is that the BPL families should get the benefit. There is a thinking going on for quite a long time like what is the point in people like M B Patil taking benefits of it,” Patil told reporters in his constituency Babaleshwar in Vijayapura district.

Stating that there was a need to have a comprehensive review of the guarantees, the Minister said the state government will take appropriate steps at an appropriate time.

Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said the government will look into complaints against those who pay Goods and Service Tax and income tax but still avail benefits under the ‘guarantee schemes’ but asserted that there was no question of altering or scrapping the guarantee schemes.

“As the Congress state president, I am saying that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has said that there is no question of altering or scrapping the guarantee schemes for any reason,” Shivakumar told reporters.

“There are complaints that some people who have more income are availing this benefit. We will review that. That’s it. There are complaints that those who are paying income tax and GST are availing it,” he maintained.

He dismissed as “false” allegations that funds allocation for development works in assembly constituencies has come down. “This is the opposition party’s conspiracy which is not able to digest the success of these guarantees.”

The opposition BJP latched onto Jarkiholi’s statement.

BJP state chief B Y Vijayendra said the state government is “unable to take the burden of freebies as it has no money to do it.” “In this background, it should not be surprising if the Congress leaders, who have raised objections against the guarantees through the ministers, not only try to curtain these guarantees, but stop them altogether,” he said in a post on ‘X’.

Leader of the opposition in the Karnataka Assembly R Ashoka said these five guarantees were bound to meet “such a fate” as they were introduced by the Congress government without “guaranteeing financial resources”.