Karnataka minister HC Balakrishna said the state would have found it easier to meet other demands had it not introduced its five guarantee schemes.
He made the remark while addressing persons with disabilities protesting in Ramanagara on Saturday night.
“If we did not have these guarantees, perhaps all these things would not have appeared to us to be such major problems. It would have been easy for us to do all this,” the municipal administration minister said. “But we have to run the government. Everything must be managed within the system and within the budget.”
Balakrishna said the government had to fund the schemes while paying salaries, carrying out development work and providing assistance to farmers during droughts. He urged the protesters to consider those commitments when assessing the government’s response to their demands.
“We are caught in the middle of all these problems and struggling,” he said.
The minister stressed that neither the government nor Chief Minister DK Shivakumar intended to stop the guarantees. They were introduced for public welfare, he said, adding that his remarks should not be taken as a refusal to address the protesters’ concerns.
The five guarantees cover free household electricity, monthly payments to eligible women, free bus travel for women and transgender persons, foodgrains for low-income households, and unemployment assistance for eligible young people.
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