Karnataka Chief minister Siddaramaiah is presenting the second state budget for this fiscal worth around Rs 3.3 lakh crore on Friday with the total expenditure at Rs 3,27,747 crore and revenue expenditure at Rs 2,50,933 crore. The capital expenditure for the budget is at Rs 54,374 crore and loan repayment at Rs 22,441 crore, reported ANI.
He also added that the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) has increased by 7.9 per cent in 2022-23.
The government has allocated Rs 37,587 crores for education and Rs 24,166 crore for women and child development. The allocation for education is 11 per cent of the budget and the allocation for women and child development makes 7 per cent of the total budget.
CM Siddaramaiah's government also allocated Rs 14,950 crore that comprises 4 per cent of the total allocation for the health and family welfare.
The government has also replaced the National Education Policy with the State Education Policy.
Development and construction of schools and colleges
The government has plans to construct 5,775 schools and 150 colleges in proportion to student strengths. This according to the Karnataka CM will be taken up in convergence with MGNREGS at a cost of Rs 200 crore.
Congress-led Karnataka government has also allocated Rs 100 crore for development of 3,833 old, dilapidated and rain-damaged school buildings and 724 pre university college rooms.
In addition the government has provided between Rs 20,000 and Rs 45,000 to government primary and high schools in the state for maintenance and upkeep of the building.
Focus on child nutrition
CM Siddaramaiah during his presentation said for the nutrition of the children eggs or peanut chikki or banana will be provided twice a week to the students and this scheme will also include the students studying in classes 9 and 10. This new scheme will cover 60 lakh students and the government has set aside Rs 280 crore for the same.
Additionally, the government announced a programme to address the learning deficiencies in children named Kalika Balavardhane programme that will be launched at a cost of Rs 80 crore. Another new programme by the government is Marusinchana that will be introduced for students that are preparing for secondary level examinations.
Provisions for higher secondary
The government has granted a total of Rs 25 crore for providing infrastructure to the University of Visvesvaraya College of Engineering, Bengaluru. The government is also going to bring all the scholarship schemes of higher education under one scholarship scheme.
CM Siddaramaiah also announced that suitable training will be organised for around 7,800 department staff under the Vruthi Chaitanya programme with allocation of Rs 10 crore.
This is the first budget after the Congress government assumed power in the state with a landslide victory in assembly elections. This is the seventh budget by Siddaramaiah as a chief minister. He had presented six budgets during his tenure as Karnataka chief minister between 2013 and 2018.
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