Karnataka government ferries 100 crore women for free in state transport buses in five months
Siddaramaiah on Thursday announced that under the program, the state had ferried 100 crore women across the state in government owned buses free of charge. Till now, the corporations have provided around Rs 2,200 worth of free tickets in the five months since the scheme was launched, according to data released by the transport department.
Taking to social media platform X, the CM called the scheme a boon for women travelling regularly.
“In the five months since the implementation of the scheme, I have seen smiles on the faces of girls who are going to school and college dreaming of a bright future, women who are going to work to support their families, mothers who are travelling to distant towns for the purpose of medical treatment for themselves and their children,” he said.
The BJP on Monday accused the government, which had completed six months in office, of withholding payments to the transport corporations, leaving them to bear the loss in revenue by themselves.
Transport minister Ramalinga Reddy refuted the allegations, saying the government would clear its accounts with the corporation in December at the time of reappropriation, as has been the custom of every regime before this one. “About 15-20 lakh more women are using the scheme than we had estimated at the time of the budget.
We will repay the Rs 800 crore we owe the corporations and then reallocate funds for the scheme in December,” he told ET.
The BJP, he added, had left the corporations around Rs 5,978 crore in loss when it left office. “They hadn’t recruited any new employees or even added new buses.
