‘Mane Manege Gange’ and more

BENGALURU: Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa presented the Budget 2021-22 on Monday. We are told a lot of prayer, and very importantly a lot of deep thinking has gone into the budget. Mr BSY is a past master at the Finance portfolio, and the State is indeed in good hands.The State Budget, following the similar basic ethos of the Union Budget, is not a taxing read. The accent seems to be on attending to the basic needs of several sectors of importance. A is for agriculture, and the rest follow. 

When I peek into the budget, it seems to very simply say that the budget is not an event, but a journey. 
And the journey of taxing people and applying all that is taxed to the most deserving parts of the economy, seems to be the continuing journey. To an extent the State budget 2021-22 clutches onto the coattails of the Union Budget. There is no need to do anything earthshaking and dramatic. The Pandemic has already done just that! Let’s give it time!

The emphasis is on no one big segment of interest. There is just a redefinition of ongoing intent in the financial play being rolled out. In short, there is nothing that jolts you, and there is nothing that shakes up the status quo ante. This is a budget that floats on the overtly stated hope that the future of the economy is going to be better than the bitter one in 2020-21.

Through the plethora of budget proposals there are points that catch my fancy. The ‘Mane Manege Gange” scheme that promises not only tap connections, but “functional tap connections” to 22 lakh homes with an outlay of Rs 4316 crore, the Bulk water to villages plan that gobbles up Rs 25,740 crore under the “Jala Jeevan Mission”, the Bengaluru Experience Centre at the Mysuru Lamps premises in Malleswaram (a new bell and whistle for modern Bengaluru), and the budget for the STP of “Koramangala Valley”! End Note: Nice to know that if there is a “Silicon Valley” somewhere, out here in Bengaluru we have a “Koramangala Valley” all our own!