Kerala Budget 2016: It read more like a poll manifesto

Thiruvananthapuram: The UDF camp is already upbeat over the criticism of “poll-oriented” budget because it implies it has enough goodies to satisfy most sections of people when the Assembly elections are less than two months away.

Excise Minister K. Babu said the budget catered not just to UDF interests. All 141 members in the assembly should be happy about the exercise as it has accommodated their specific and felt needs constituency-wise.

The Pala strongman and former Finance Minister K M Mani was in sulks at the Assembly, looking for the sides at the mirth on the treasury benches over the smooth sail in the House. The Chief Minister attempted to pacify Mani. He said he was "grateful" to Mani for his work during the last four years.

Was Chief Minister Oommen Chandy being clever, declaring sops at the cost of fiscal prudence? UDF sources believe the budget is the best in the given circumstances because it takes forward the agenda of development with care and who can blame him for raising welfare pension from Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500.  

Students, workers, entrepreneurs, government employees, pensioners, NRKs, the marginalised, the deprived, women, the elderly, children, youth, physically challenged- all have something to cheer about from the announcements.

But it is another issue whether there would be adequate allocations to distribute the doles. A case in point is the last budget provision of Rs 125 crore for Kudumbasree workers but only Rs 25 crore had been paid as yet.

Perhaps the most effective way in which the Chief Minister doled out patronage was through the announcement of road works. Apart from the 20 minutes he took to list out his achievements, it was for naming the places through which these roads would pass that Mr Chandy took an indulgently long time.

From Pravachambalam down south to Cherupuzha up north, and Nadukani in the east to Pullepady in the west, Chandy carefully spelled the names of innumerable, and largely obscure, small towns and villages. Perhaps, the calculation is, it will have an effect similar to the one when an important person calls lower mortals by their names. It perhaps will have the effect equivalent to that of an important person taking of a subtly conveyed his political message.