The Karnataka state government has decided to issue free bus passes for students from the SC/ST community, and will soon roll out the scheme to distribute free bus passes to them, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said.
The Karnataka government has decided to issue free bus passes to students from scheduled caste and scheduled tribe communities and will soon roll out the scheme, chief minister Basavaraj Bommai said.
The Bommai-led SC, ST state development council on Friday gave the approval to the implementation of various welfare programmes of more than ₹28,000 crore under the Scheduled Caste Sub-Plan (SCSP) for scheduled castes and tribal sub-plan (TSP).
Bommai told reporters that the council took stock of the utilisation of allocations of last year and funds remaining unspent. Some of the programmes were cleared with some modifications and most of the programmes were approved without any changes.
Allocation for the social welfare department has been raised by ₹500 crore, the ₹851-crore grant for the agriculture department has been increased to ₹1,061 crore, the grant for the horticulture department has been hiked to ₹187 crore from ₹142 crore, the grant for health department has been increased to ₹1,300 crore from ₹899 crore, Bommai said.
The amount reserved for pensions in the revenue department has been raised to ₹3,748 crore from ₹2,900 crore. A sum of ₹20 crore has been allocated for the development of places visited by Dr BR Ambedkar in the state.
The SC-ST development council approved the SC-ST sub-plan for 2022-23 at the meeting it had with Bommai on Friday.
“I have directed officials to strictly ensure SC-ST sub-plan funds are not diverted to any other work other than the welfare of SC and ST communities. I have also asked them to implement all schemes before August,” Bommai said.
The chief minister is reportedly fast-tracking the implementation of various schemes ahead of the upcoming assembly polls in 2023. Last week, the ruling BJP had announced that all families from SC/ST communities will be given around 75 units of free power, raising the bar from the 40 units it was before.
The decision could help the Bommai-led government to secure goodwill from the largest vote share, as the SC and ST communities make up about 24 per cent of the electorate.
(With inputs from PTI)
