Bengaluru| Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday said the first cabinet meeting has approved the implementation of five guarantee schemes promised in the Congress party’s election manifesto. He said that work is being done on this. The next cabinet meeting will be held next week. Addressing the first press conference in the Vidhan Sabha after assuming the post of Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah said that the cabinet meeting has agreed to implement the five guarantees.
“No matter how much money is needed for the schemes, we will implement them as per our promise,” the CM said. He said that under the Griha Jyoti Yojana, 200 units of electricity per month is free for households and this would cost around Rs 1,200 crore per month. Similarly, Rs 2,000-2,000 will be given under the Grihalakshmi Yojana for women heads of the family.
All unemployed graduates from engineers to MBBS will get Rs 2,000 for two years, while diploma holders will get Rs 1,500. Bus passes will be issued to all women of Karnataka and they will be able to travel free of cost in all government transport vehicles except luxury vehicles.
Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar said that the details of the beneficiaries will be collected to fix accountability, which may take some time.
Siddaramaiah said that an order would be issued to restart Indira Canteens across the state to provide subsidized food to the poor.
He said that a three-day assembly session has been called from May 22 and a request in this regard has been sent to Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot.
He said that this is to constitute a new assembly. Senior leader RV Deshpande will act as the pro tem speaker. The new speaker will be announced at the session. Siddaramaiah said the state would get Rs 50,000 crore from the Center this year.
Siddaramaiah said injustice has been done to Karnataka as compared to other states. The state pays Rs 4 lakh crore as tax to the central government.
