Oppn finds budget 'illusionary'

bangalore : chief minister s m krishna''s 2002-2003 budget is ``illusionary, uninspiring and lacks focus'''' according to the entire opposition. ridiculing krishna''s `no 1 cm'' status, opposition leaders said krishna, the finance minister, had ``failed in the budget test.'''' the main complaint was that the budget had ``nothing'''' to offer either on the drastic drinking water shortage situation or schemes for rural development.legislative council opposition leader k.h. srinivasa said the budget is welcome to the extent that krishna has, for the first time, decided to look towards areas other than information techonology. ``it seems krishna has started coming out his own world of hi-tech illusion,'''' he stated. asked if the congress'' defeat in kanakapura byelection was the reason for krishna to come down to grassroots reality, srinivas said: ``if that is so, i consider this budget more significant than deve gowda''s victory.'''' legislative assembly opposition leader jagadish shettar, while welcoming the ban on stamp paper, said this was inadequate. ``when 200 farmers have committed suicide, all krishna has to offer is slogans, not schemes,'''' he declared. shettar said neither the d.m. nanjundappa committee report on regional imbalance nor the finer points of administrative reforms commission had seen any signs of implementation. ``even the allocation to the high court bench in hubli is a mere rs 10 crore, when they should have kept rs 100 crore,'''' he maintained. jdu floor leader p.g.r. sindhia said it was a wonder the state had not become bankrupt, given the poor revenue collection. ``the entire budget is clothing a patient in good clothes and claiming his illness is cured,'''' he contended. admitting that the government had addressed some of the issues affecting the public, sindhia however said: ``in the last budget, the cm made a solemn commitment to give eight hours of uninterrupted power supply, which just remained on paper. how do we know this time it is different?'''' m.c.nanaiah (jd) took strong exception to allocation of rs 300 crore exclusively for krishna''s home district, mandya. ``is he cm of mandya or karnataka? this was not expected from him,'''' he added.