Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has described the Union Budget 2025-26 presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament on Saturday as lacking in foresightedness.
Addressing a press conference in Mysuru on Saturday, Mr. Siddaramaiah pointed out that the Union Budget had not only failed to address the demand of agitating farmers for introduction of a law guaranteeing Minimum Support Price (MSP) for farm produce, but also brought down allocation for agriculture despite assuring a major boost to the sector.
Crop insurance
While the allocation set aside for crop insurance had been brought down from ₹15,864 crore during 2024-25 Budget to ₹12,242 crore in the Budget proposals for 2025-26, the amount earmarked for the health and disease control among cattle has been brought down from ₹2,465 crore during 2024-25 to ₹1,980 crore during 2025-26, he said.
Mr. Siddaramaiah also pointed out that the allocation for National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) scheme had been brought down from ₹89,154 crore to ₹86,000 crore from last year. The Union Budget had also not increased the scholarship amount for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe students, he said.
Even though the Budget speech was replete with slogans like ‘Make In India’, ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas’, and ‘Start-up India’, the allocation for ‘Make In India’ was a mere ₹100 crore, Mr. Siddaramaiah said, while claiming that the budgetary proposals were “empty rhetoric”.
Though the Budget size had increased from ₹48.2 lakh crore last year to ₹50.65 lakh crore this year, loans amount to ₹15.68 lakh crore, which is about 30% of the Budget size, he said pointing out that the total debt on the country will increase from the existing ₹202 lakh crore to ₹205 lakh crore.
Published – February 01, 2025 08:30 pm IST
