Congress to protest against ‘discrimination’ in fund allocation

Claims allotments to non-BJP constituencies are being revised downwards

Congress party workers under BTM Layout MLA Ramalinga Reddy will protest on Thursday against the alleged discrimination in allocation of BBMP funds to various constituencies in the city by the State government.

According to a release, the government has revised the budgetary allocation to various areas having Congress MLAs and increased the allocation to constituencies represented by the BJP and MLAs who were disqualified and resigned.

For example, BTM Layout, represented by Mr. Reddy, had received ₹367 crore, which has been revised to ₹152.84 crore. In Byatarayanapura constituency, represented by Krishne Byre Gowda, the amount has been revised from ₹259.79 crore to ₹119.29 crore. For Vijayanagara constituency, the allocation came down from ₹250 crore to ₹60 crore, the release said.

Meanwhile, budgetary allocations to constituencies represented by disqualified MLAs have increased, with K.R. Puram getting ₹625 crore from ₹337 crore earlier.

The previous Congress-JD(S) coalition government had in May approved a budget outlay of ₹11,648.9 crore for 2019-20 with a 10% reduction from the proposed outlay of ₹12,957.79 crore, which had been passed by the BBMP council in February this year.

Former minister and Byatarayanapura MLA Krishna Byre Gowda told

The Hindu that the revised civic budget approved by Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa made no changes to the programmes of the budget, only the allocations to various assembly constituencies.

"These allocations were made based on an action plan for the funds allocated to the city in the State budget of 2018-19. The cabinet approved the action plan in January 2019. Based on that, tenders have been called, and in some cases changed work orders are about to be issued," he explained.

He said the government’s move is ‘illegal’ as a cabinet approved government order was set aside without a valid reason.

Responding to allegations of partisanship in allocation of funds to assembly segments represented by Congress and JD(S) over the last six years, he said priorities to constituencies represented by the ruling party is acceptable, but not taking back funds allotted by a previous government.

“When we came to power in 2013, we honoured all commitments made by the previous BJP government that fiscal year. Cancellation of works is a new tradition unheard of in the State,” he said.

He also added that irrespective of who represents a constituency, outer zones require larger fiscal support as infrastructure is being developed in these areas.

“During our government, we gave generous funds to Bommanahalli and Mahadevapura constituencies, represented by BJP, as these areas require such support. But now, the BJP government has taken back funds allocated to Byatarayanapura, which is a constituency in the outer zone,” he claimed.

"Cauvery work is in progress in my constituency. Most of the road works approved were to redo roads that had been dug up. Now those projects have been cancelled and funds diverted," he added.