‘Team Budget’ has one last meet before birthday

BENGALURU: Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa sat with his budget team one last time at his residence on Wednesday evening to read through the voluminous document and to clarify some of the points before it is presented on Thursday.

The chief minister has to stand and read the document that is expected to run over two hours. After the meeting, Finance Secretary ISN Prasad, who is also the Additional Chief Secretary, and his team carried the document under heavy security to the government press, where it is printed under his supervision. He will also monitor the number of copies printed, both in Kannada and English, which will be stocked at Vidhana Soudha and distributed soon after the chief minister starts reading the budget on Thursday.

Yediyurappa started his pre-budget meetings about a month ago that were attended by Prasad, Ekroop Kaur and other Finance Department officers. M Lakshminarayana, a retired bureaucrat who is an advisor to Yediyurappa, too was present during these meetings, which were held almost every day, as is the tradition in the state. Lakshminarayana grew close to Yediyurappa while serving as a bureaucrat in Shivamogga.

For Prasad, this is the third consecutive budget, but under three different governments. He served under Congress chief minister Siddaramaiah, JDS CM HD Kumaraswamy and now Yediyurappa.
Sources said that the budget may have many sops for North Karnataka, which has been Yediyurappa’s  main support base. Expectations are also high on farmers getting a waiver on the interest component of loans, and continuation of the Badavara Bandhu scheme, launched by the Siddaramaiah government. 

For budget, CM follows own ritual
There is no fixed ritual for the state budget, like the halwa preparation ahead of the Union Budget, but Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa has made it a point to visit the Radha Krishna temple in Sanjaynagar before presenting his budgets, which he has done six times earlier.  On Thursday too, he will visit the temple, and from there, head straight to Health Minister B Sriramulu’s daughter Rakshita’s wedding before rushing to Vidhan Soudha for budget presentation. Contrary to expectations, Yediyurappa will be stepping out of his RMV Extension residence, Dhavalagiri, and not the CM’s official quarters, Cauvery. Yediyurappa will perform his prayers at home early in the morning, keeping the budget in mind, sources close to the CM said.