Haveri: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday announced that since the code of conduct for elections will be in place in March, he would present the state budget in the first week of February.

“We will present the budget early,” he told reporters in Narasapura helipad in Haveri.

The state government is facing the challenge of ensuring the implementation of five guarantee schemes and also ensuring that development also has enough funds. The BJP is alleging that the Congress government had destroyed the economy of the state by not focussing on generating revenue for the guarantee schemes.

Siddaramaiah, on the other hand, maintained that the state government had given Rs 2,000 compensation each for farmers in the drought period temporarily.

“As soon as we get a package from the Central government, more compensation will be provided to farmers,” he stated.

“I know that the present compensation provided by the government is not enough. But, to date, no funds have been released by the Central government. The BJP leaders, instead of doing criticism, let them get the funds released,” he said.

Reacting to Union Minister Pralhad Joshi’s statement that the culture of issuing derogatory remarks was started by CM Siddaramaiah while defending BJP leader Anantkumar Hegde’s remarks, Siddaramaiah said: “As an MP and former Union Minister, Hegde’s contribution is zero. He has been absconding for three years and he is trying to get attention by issuing such statements. Culture is all about humanity. Humanity should be there. The statement also reflects the culture of Union Minister Joshi,”

Reacting to Hegde’s comments where he used the word “son” in Kannada, the Chief Minister had said earlier that if Hegde used obscene words for him for the sake of political reasons, the language reflects his culture.