'CM HD Kumaraswamy will answer in Assembly to Congress' criticism of budget'

Bengaluru, July 7 Janata Dal (Secular) (JD-S) supremo and former prime minister HD Deve Gowda on Saturday said that Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy will give every single essential detail and answer on the financial plan on the floor of the House.

His announcement came following senior Congress leader H K Patil's letter to Kumaraswamy reprimanding the state budget.

"Chief Minister will give every single important detail and answer on the financial plan on the floor of the House, at that point the entire billow of uncertainty will be cleared," Deve Gowda told reporters here.

In a letter addressed to Kumaraswamy, Patil publicized his discontent over the budget and blamed the Chief Minister for disregarding the minorities in the budget.

Patil, a former minister from north Karnataka also urged Kumaraswamy to take corrective measures and announce a similar when he reacts to the debate on the budget in the Assembly.

"In the 2018 assembly elections, minorities were the reason for our victory. We should have declared in any event a few activities for them in the Budget. There were no new initiatives announced for them," reads the letter.

Patil had expressed that people in north Karnataka are disappointed with Congress-JDS coalition government's first budget that had no new plans for development of the district.

"In the 1999-2004 Congress government, 2004-06 Congress-JD(S) coalition government and 2013-18 Congress government there were a few activities declared for the regions of north Karnataka. It is better if the present coalition government too were to declare a couple of activities for these districts," he said in the letter.

Patil was the Minister of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj in the Siddaramaiah-drove Congress government.

Kumaraswamy presented the first budget of his Janata Dal (Secular)- Congress coalition government in the Vidhana Soudha on Thursday.

In the budget, the state government declared a Rs 34,000 crore farm loan while also revealing that it has hiked fuel costs, c power tariffs and excise duty on Indian-made alcohol.