Five Guarantees Have Made Karnataka’s Finances Tougher to Manage: Minister

Karnataka Minister H C Balakrishna has said the state's finances would have been easier to manage had the government not introduced its five guarantee schemes, while appealing to persons with disabilities protesting here to understand its financial limitations.

Balakrishna, who holds the municipal administration portfolio, said the government had to balance its welfare commitments with expenditure on salaries, development works and other obligations amid financial constraints.

"If we did not have these guarantees, perhaps all these things would not have appeared to us to be such major problems. It would have been easy for us to do all this. But we have to run the government. Everything must be managed within the system and within the budget," he told protesters on Saturday night.

The five guarantees are Gruha Jyothi, which provides up to 200 units of free electricity to households; Gruha Lakshmi, under which eligible women heads of households receive Rs 2,000 per month; Shakti, which provides free travel to women and transgender persons on state-run non-premium buses; Anna Bhagya, which provides 10 kg of foodgrain to BPL cardholders; and Yuva Nidhi, which offers unemployment assistance to eligible graduates and diploma holders.

Balakrishna said the schemes had been introduced for the welfare of the people but added that the government also had to respond to demands for assistance during droughts.

"If there is a drought, we have to provide financial assistance to farmers, and they too stage protests," he said.

The minister noted that even beneficiaries of the guarantee schemes were staging protests, leaving the government to deal with multiple demands.

He, however, clarified that the government and Chief Minister D K Shivakumar have no intention of stopping the guarantees.

Balakrishna said he understood the protesters' concerns but urged them to recognise the government's financial constraints and not interpret its explanation as an attempt to cause hardship.