K’taka CM Siddaramaiah meets PM Modi, demands more central assistance

Bengaluru (The Uttam Hindu): Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his office in New Delhi on Friday. While thanking him for giving time to meet him at short notice, CM Siddaramaiah submitted a memorandum demanding central assistance and cooperation on some issues. The CM has requested to rectify a "severe" cut in the NABARD loan to the state, to allocate Rs 5,300 crore for the Upper Bhadra Project as announced in the Union Budget, to help the state to get clearances for the Mekedatu and Mahadayi projects. He also demanded funds for the development of Bengaluru city.

The memorandum stated, “Dear Prime Minister Narendra Modiji, at the outset let me thank you for giving me time to meet you at short notice. I wish to raise some critical issues of paramount importance for our state. Firstly, the issue of severe cuts in the ‘Short Term Agricultural Credit Limit’ to Karnataka by NABARD has created serious alarm among the farmers of the state. As against Rs 5,600 crore of limit sanctioned during 2023-24, NABARD has sanctioned only Rs 2, 340 crore for the current year (2024-25), which is a steep cut of 58 per cent, CM pointed out. This will seriously impact the cost of finance for farmers unless the state steps in to provide additional interest subvention which will severely impact our finances. I have met the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in this regard and apprised her of our concerns. I request you to look into this and direct the Finance Ministry to rectify this situation so that farmers in Karnataka continue to receive soft agricultural loans,” he stated.

“Secondly, as I have requested of you earlier, the promise made by the Union Finance Minister in the Union budget of 2023-24 to provide Rs 5,300 crore for the Upper Bhadra Project remains to be fulfilled. I understand a Cabinet note has been moved to provide this assistance under Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme. I would request you to give approval to this proposal at your earliest convenience, as the Upper Bhadra project provides irrigation to the parched farm-lands of central Karnataka,” CM urged.

"Thirdly, Karnataka is an arid state and desperately needs development of irrigation potential. This task has been carried out largely by the state from its own resources. However, pending project clearances by the Jal Shakti Ministry as well as by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change are delaying our projects," he emphasized.

"Two projects need your urgent attention, viz., the Mekedatu Balancing Reservoir on the Cauvery River and the Kalasa Banduri project on the Mahadayi River. The former needs approval from the Jal Shakti Ministry as well as environmental clearance. The latter is at an advanced stage for wildlife clearance. Kindly direct the two ministries to expedite clearances for these projects," CM Siddaramaiah demanded.

"Fourthly, Bengaluru has emerged as the Tech and Innovation Capital of the country and is one of the fastest-growing cities in the world. The city is among the top three contributors to the country’s GDP. The city needs major infrastructure investment. Our government has major plans to improve the infrastructure, de-congest the city and upgrade the living standards of the city for all its citizens. In my letter of June 29, 2024, which I had the opportunity of meeting and handing over to you, I had outlined our vision and a series of projects that we are taking up,” he stated.

“I request you to direct the Ministry of Urban Development, the Ministry of Railways and the Ministry of Road Transport to look into our requests favourably and provide special assistance to the city so as to enable us to invest in urban transport and public transport for the city,” he stated.

“Further, Karnataka is fast urbanizing and we have 13 city corporations which are Tier-2 cities that need massive investment,” he said.

The Government of Karnataka has a programme called Mahatma Gandhi Nagar Vikas Yojana under which we have dedicated Rs.2,000 crore over the next three years. However, this is woefully inadequate to meet the infrastructure to these cities. I request you to direct the Ministry of Urban Development to provide Rs.10,000 crore for these cities under AMRUT or any other schemes., CM Siddaramaiah requested.

“Finally, we have been raising the issue of Karnataka receiving a raw deal at the hands of the 15th Finance Commission. It is our firm belief that the Ministry of Finance could have set the right anomalies in the recommendations that lowered our share in the divisible pool of taxes by 1 per cent,” he stated.

"At the very least, the Ministry could have accepted the recommendations made by the Finance Commission to give two kinds of special grants to the state: one, Rs 5,495 crore to compensate for the reduction in our share, two, a special grant of Rs 6,000 crore for Peripheral Ring Road and for rejuvenation of water bodies, he claimed.

“Since we are still in the period of the 15th Finance Commission, I would again request you to direct the Ministry of Finance to provide additional grants,” he stressed.

"Further, together with the 16th Finance Commission the Ministry of Finance must make sure that in the future states contributing a larger share to the central taxes are not punished by severe cuts in the share of those central taxes," he demanded.

“I do hope our requests receive favourable consideration from you,” CM Siddaramaiah stated.