Chief Minister K Rosaiah, a veteran of the financial affairs in the state, dished out yet another `fat' budget for the state, but the Krishna district has been meted out raw peanuts. During his review meet with the people's representatives on Feb 16, Rosaiah assured funds for Pulichintala, extension of Gannavaram airport, Bandar port and for Krishna varsity. But none of them were mentioned in the budget for 2010-11. Only Rs 1.5 crore, as against Rs 46 crore last year, was allocated for the city's airport this financial year speaks volumes about the neglect of the district.
The poor budgetary allocation to the district received widespread criticism from the people. The long-pending projects like Bandar port development, superspeciality hospital, strengthening of Krishna river bund, Budameru diversion canal, outer and inner ring roads in the city, expansion of national highways from Vijayawada to Machilipatnam and construction of bridge across river Krishna at Kanakadurga temple have not been mentioned in the budget and they would remain a pipedream.
Despite irrigation being a lion's share of Rs 15,011 crore in the budget, the allocation for the sector was meagre and it would be difficult to complete the ongoing works like Krishna delta modernisation and Pulichintala project in the district.. ``The government allocated Rs 125 crore for the district and the sum would be insufficient to complete the projects in the stipulated time,'' says a senior engineer of the Irrigation department.