The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has termed the decision of the new government in the State to present the State budget in July as a futile exercise that would serve no purpose as the budget for 2013-14 had been presented and passed in the Assembly.
The former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, who presented the 2013-14 budget in the Assembly, told presspersons here on Tuesday that he did not see any reason for the present government to re-present the budget.
“If the new government wants to include any new programme in addition to the one announced in the budget presented by me, it can include them in the supplementary budget,” he said.
He told a questioner that the Chief Minister, while presenting the new budget in July, should not venture to discontinue any welfare measures announced in the budget presented by him.
On the decision of the new government to review all the decisions taken by the BJP government during fag end of its term, Mr. Shettar said that the Congress government was setting a bad precedent by deciding to review the decisions taken by his Cabinet.
“I have not committed any impropriety by chairing numerous Cabinet meetings during the fag end of my government’s tenure and all the decisions taken in these meetings are legally tenable and they were taken in meetings held before the announcement of the election dates and the model code of conduct came into force,” Mr. Shettar said.
Any review of these decisions taken in the Cabinet meeting would be a wrong move, Mr. Shettar said.
Mr. Shettar said that the Chief Minister had the habit of making several announcements and new schemes without taking into consideration the consequences.
“The Chief Minister, who hurriedly made an announcement that rice will be given at Re. 1 to below poverty line families, is now saying that he will seek additional supply of rice from the Union government to implement the programme,” he said.
Similarly, he made an announcement that cheap liquor will be introduced. What does the new government want? Does it want more people to consume liquor?” he asked.
