There’s no stopping Jagadish Shettar

BANGALORE: Despite his predecessor BS Yeddyurappa’s threats of stalling budget presentation, chief minister Jagadish Shettar will table the document in the assembly on Friday at 12.30pm.
It’ll be the last budget of the BJP government which completes five years in office on May 30. Shettar is expected to present a Rs 1.3 lakh crore budget, including a separate one on agriculture.During the past five years, three chief ministers have presented the budget with Yeddyurappa presenting two of them.
As this is an election year, the CM will seek a vote on account for four months (permission to spend ) and will perhaps announce populist schemes. One reason for presenting the state budget ahead of the Union budget is to beat the Election Commission’s possible announcement of assembly poll dates in March first week. Once that happens, the model code of conduct comes into force and the government can’t announce sops.
WHAT WE CAN EXPECT
The budget will be announced at 12.30pm. Some of the proposals we can expect:
No new tax proposals Reduction in diesel surcharge Creation of taluks Increase in Bhagyalakshmi insurance cover Increase in social security scheme Regularization of daily-wage employees in forest and other departments Increase in agriculture and industrial growth rate More funds for Metro and Monorail projects Funds allocation to mutts, particularly those concentrating on backward classes More money to tourism department