Karnataka budget in July first week: Siddaramaiah

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said Monday he will present the budget in the first week of July, the first after Congress returned to power in the state after nine years.

Siddaramaiah, who holds the finance portfolio, indicated he was not planning to present a budget of Rs.100,000 crore or more but it would be based on the resources available.

His Bharatiya Janata Party predecessors, Jagadish Shettar and D. V. Sadananda Gowda, had presented a budget of over Rs.100,000 crore and claimed it as a credit as previous non-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) governments in the state had not done so.

The on-going programmes of BJP government would continue while he will decide on the new programmes announced by the Congress ahead of the May 5 assembly poll, Siddaramaiah told reporters in this town, 130km from Bangalore.

The Congress wrested power from BJP in the assembly poll 5 and Siddaramaiah who took over as chief minister May 13 Sunday allotted portfolios to his 28 ministers keeping finance department for himself.

He has earned name as good finance minister presenting seven budgets, five in a row, when he was in the Janata Dal governments in the state.

Siddaramaiah joined the Congress in 2006.