Bengaluru, Sept. 27 -- In a candid admission that could fuel the debate over Karnataka's flagship welfare guarantees, Municipal Administration Minister HC Balakrishna has said the schemes have made the state's finances more difficult to manage, forcing the government to juggle welfare commitments with salaries, development works and other expenditure.
Addressing persons with disabilities protesting in Ramanagara over their demands, Balakrishna said the government would have had greater financial flexibility had it not undertaken the guarantee schemes.
"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. But we have to run the ...