Karnataka declares free bus rides for women — from girls to the elderly

He sought all the information, including the financial report, of all four state transport corporations before announcing the move.

Related: Siddaramaiah Cabinet approves 5 guarantees. Cost: ₹50k crore

Poll guarantee

The Congress made five poll guarantees, including free travel for women across Karnataka in state buses, and said it would implement them soon after coming to power.

Even Chief Minister Siddaramaiah chaired a meeting with the officials concerned in order to implement the five poll promises recently. He also gave in-principle approval for the implementation of the five poll promises.

“There is a Cabinet meeting on 1 June. After the Cabinet meeting, the chief minister will make an official announcement on free travel for women in state buses,” Reddy told reporters.

According to the Transport Department: “Around 82.51 lakh people travel daily in state buses. Of the total passengers, 50 percent are estimated to be women passengers.”

“The transport department reported a total revenue of Rs 8,946.85 crores for the 2022-23 fiscal year. The operation cost was Rs 12,750.49 crores in the last fiscal year. The daily traffic revenue is around Rs 23.13 crores. There are 23,978 buses operating in four state transport corporations,” claimed the transport department.

Related: Electricity bill collectors get Congress’ poll-guarantee shock

‘No conditions for free travel’

Amidst strong talks that the five guarantees promised by the Congress would largely benefit only holders of Below Poverty Line (BPL) cards, Reddy said that there would be no conditions applied for women to travel in government buses.

He told reporters in Bengaluru on Tuesday: “In our party manifesto, we announced Shakti, free travel for women, in state buses. As promised, we will implement it. The chief minister has sought a report on the budget that is required to implement it. The officials have prepared and will submit it to him on Wednesday.”

Reiterating that Siddaramaiah would formally announce the scheme on Thursday, he also said: “We had not mentioned any conditions or guidelines in the manifesto. So, we are implementing it without any conditions. The officials have given four options, which cannot be disclosed, it will be presented before the chief minister.”

He added: “From children to elderly women, anyone can travel for free across Karnataka in state buses. There are no criteria. The final decision will be taken by the Cabinet.”

The government has not issued any official order on the implementation of the Shakti scheme.

It may also be noted that all four state transport corporations are incurring losses.

“None of the state transport corporations in Karnataka are in profit. As these are public transport corporations, we won’t consider profit and loss. We will maintain financial records on the expenses and revenue,” an official told South First on condition of anonymity.

Also read: Meet the first-time MLAs of Karnataka

DA hiked by 4%

Meanwhile, he Siddaramaiah-led Karnataka government on Tuesday increased the Dearness allowance (DA) for state government employees and pensioners by 4 percentage points with effect from 1 January, 2023.

With this, the DA will increase from the existing 31 percent to 35 percent of the basic pay.

Happy news to all my dear government employee friends.

The government has decided to increase the Dearness Allowance from 31% to 35% of the basic pay/basic pension with effect from 1st January 2023. pic.twitter.com/bdElOMdJ7u

— CM of Karnataka (@CMofKarnataka) May 30, 2023

“The Government is pleased to enhance the dearness allowance payable to the state government employees in the 2018 Revised Pay Scales from the existing 31 percent to 35 percent of the basic pay with effect from 1 January, 2023,” said a notification from the government.

The government also increased the DA by a similar quantum for all state government pensioners as well as the pensioner of aided educational institutions, whose pension is paid out of the Consolidated Fund of the state.

This is also applicable to all the pensioners of the University Grants Commission, the All India Council for Technical Education, and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.

The DA will be increased for full-time government employees, employees of Zilla Panchayats, and full-time employees of aided educational institutions and universities, who are on regular time scales of pay.