After Shivakumar hints at halting Shakthi scheme, K'taka CM says no

Bengaluru, Oct 31 (IANS) Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said on Thursday that there was no proposal to revise the guarantee schemes at the government level.

He said this while reacting to the statement of Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar that the government will hold discussions on the Shakthi scheme.

The CM stated, “I will talk to Shivakumar about it. There is no proposal to revise the guarantee schemes at the government level. There is no intention on our side in this regard. There is no proposal as such to stop the Shakthi scheme. I don’t know about it or Dy CM D.K. Shivakumar saying that few women are demanding that they want to pay and travel."

Shivakumar on Wednesday said the government will hold discussions on the Shakthi scheme in view of many women preferring to pay for their tickets. Sources stated that the government will conduct a meeting shortly to discuss the withdrawal of the Shakthi scheme. If not for total withdrawal of the scheme, the government will stop free travel service to all women, sources added.

Sources further explain that, following the drubbing in the Lok Sabha election, a large number of Congress leaders, including MLAs and Ministers, are pressuring CM Siddaramaiah to stop the guarantees or to impose restrictions on beneficiaries.

Senior Congress MLA Raju Kage recently alleged that no schemes were introduced in the state for the farmers to survive. He even threatened to end his life at Vidhana Soudha for the agrarian cause. Veteran Congress leader R.V. Deshpande had also openly stated about the shortage of funds for the development works.

The Congress government is under tremendous pressure from its own legislators after the Lok Sabha election. The party hoped that through guarantee schemes it would manage to get more than 18 seats out of 28 seats. It could only manage to win nine seats with the majority of seats coming from the Kalyan Karnataka region, which has the most backward districts in the state.

Commenting over the development, Union Minister for Heavy Industries and Steel H.D. Kumaraswamy stated on Thursday, “Already Anna Bhagya scheme where 10 kilos of free rice is promised for every individual of the family, the Congress government has imposed conditions and started giving guidelines. Through this, the quantity of rice has been lowered. We have to see where the trend will reach.”

“Ultimately, we have to wait and see where the Congress government will take this. We are not jealous or unhappy about the guarantee schemes. Let them double the five guarantees, we are happy. My advice to them is not to push the state towards bankruptcy,” he stated.

“You look at the statistics available with the government. The government is not able to carry out any development work. The tax paid by the people of the state is utilized for the guarantees,” he stated.

“The governments will have to create capital assets. Then the state becomes powerful economically. In Karnataka, the economic interests of the state are harmed. If freebies are continued by not arranging alternatives to generate capital, what will happen in future? We have seen the chaos and anarchy that have sunk different countries and my concern is it should not happen in Karnataka state,” he stated.

Earlier, Shivakumar said, “Many women have been communicating to us through social media and emails that they would like to pay for their tickets. We will discuss this.”

“About 5-10 per cent of women are saying that the conductors are not taking money for the tickets even when they volunteer. I will soon hold a meeting with Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy and discuss this,” he added.

The Karnataka government is providing 10 kilos of free rice to every member of a BPL family under the Anna Bhagya scheme; Under the Gruha Laxmi scheme, every woman head of the BPL family is given Rs 2,000; Under Yuva Nidhi, unemployed graduates will get Rs 3,000 and diploma holders Rs 1,500 for two years.

Under the Gruha Jyothi scheme, every household is provided 200 units of free power and the Shakthi scheme offers free travel to women across the state. The Congress government is spending about Rs 52,000 crore annually on five guarantees.

--IANS

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