While the Hyderabad Karnataka Chamber of Commerce and Industries (HKCCI) termed the State Budget a “most disappointing budget”, others called it as one meant for the development Bengaluru and south Karnataka.
Many expected that the special grants to the Hyderabad Karnataka Regional Development Board (HKRDB) would be increased from Rs. 1,500 crore to Rs. 2,000 crore.
During the Siddaramaiah government tenure, special grants of Rs. 150 crore was allocated in 2013-14, Rs. 1,000 crore each for next three years and Rs. 1,500 crore for 2017-18.
The region expected initiatives for taking forward the National Investment and Manufacturing Zone (NIMZ), an industrial corridor to come up on 12,500 acres in Kalaburagi.
“Of the required 12,500 acres, 3,500 acres belong to the government. We, the industrial community, were expecting that a good amount of funds would be allocated in the current Budget for acquiring the remaining land. Our hopes are shattered,” Amarnath C. Patil, chairman of HKCCI, told The Hindu .
People of Raichur were also enthusiastically looking forward to some good news with regard to the newly established Raichur University. The budget, however, disappointed them by not making any allocation.
Razak Ustaad, vice-president of Hyderabad Karnataka Horata Samithi, a civil society organisation that was in the forefront of the movement for special status to the region under Article 371(J), said that the current budget was completely south Karnataka centric.
“No previous governments have done as much discrimination as the current government did in budgetary allocations. This budget upheld the regional imbalances in development by completely neglecting the backward Bombay and Hyderabad Karnataka regions and focussing only on Bengaluru and south Karnataka,” he said.
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