Gowda Seeks Uf Support To Balance Fiscal Burden, Goals

Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda has asked his United Front (UF) partners to suggest ways to meet the front's political objectives while he carried the Centre's financial burden of Rs 1,17,000 crore.

At the front's steering committee meeting yesterday, Gowda asked how the budget could be used to engineer economic growth and simultaneously fulfil the pro-poor promises of the coalition's common minimum programme (CMP).

With finance minister P Chidambaram busy preparing the budget, Gowda took up the political management of the budget preparation with the front's 13 constituents. Some of them, particularly the Left parties, have reservations about Chidambaram's thrust on liberalisation.

Gowda said that while the government debt stood at Rs 85,000 crore and oil pool account deficit stood at Rs 20,000 crore, the Fifth Pay Commission had placed a further burden of Rs 12,000 crore on the government.

After paying these bills, the Centre will have to cough up another Rs 9,000 crore if it made primary education universal and compulsory for all. The government intends to bring a Bill in Parliament's budget session to make it mandatory for the government to provide primary education to all.

The front constituents, especially the Left parties, said that they were not opposed to economic reforms as such, but cautioned Gowda against using the term liberalisation, as it had ideological connotations.

The parties will now make their suggestions at the next steering committee meeting on February 18. Other issues to be discussed included the pay panel's recommendations, the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) inquiry into the Bofors case and reports about former home minister S B Chavan's interview to a TV channel.

The committee decided that the government should call all the trade unions of the Central government for a comprehensive discussion on the pay panel report and its implementation.