The Karnataka Land Revenue (Amendment) Bill that got the assent of Governor H.R. Bhardwaj recently may come in handy for Chief Minister Siddaramaiah who is looking at raising additional resources to make up for the huge subsidies that have to be given for flagship schemes such as the rice scheme and waiver of loans of 7.6 lakh persons from Dalit and backward classes.
According to sources in the Chief Minister’s office, the Bill that seeks to regularise unauthorised constructions on government land in rural areas by collecting a fee may fetch nearly Rs. 2,500 crore to the government in terms of regularisation fee. This would help ease the pressure to an extent, if not completely, in handling the rice scheme that would require about Rs. 4,400 crore and the loan waiver scheme that would cost about Rs. 977.50 crore in addition to the plans to supply milk to school children, they said.
As a debate is raging on whether the Chief Minister will end the trend of giving budgetary allocations to religious institutions sources close to him maintain that he has an open mind on supporting some of the institutions that are rendering yeomen’s service in the rural education sector. But even if he offers monetary support to such institutions, it would be backed by a system to monitor the utilisation of funds in a bid bring about accountability, the sources said. There are also hopes of the Chief Minister emulating the example of Andhra Pradesh in putting in place an efficient mechanism for the implementation of the special component scheme for Dalits.
