BENGALURU: A day after deputy chief minister D K Shivakumar suggested a potential revision of the Shakthi scheme, which provides free bus travel for women, CM Siddaramaiah on Thursday asserted there’s no move to review any of govt’s guarantee schemes.
“There is no proposal (on this) at the government level. I’ll talk to Shivakumar about it,” he said. “I don’t know about Shivakumar saying a section of the commuters wanting to pay for their travel,” the CM added.
On Wednesday, Shivakumar said several women had reached out to him via social media and emails, expressing desire to pay for their tickets. “About 5% to 10% of them said conductors are not accepting fare even when offered. I’ll soon hold a meeting with the transport minister,” he had said. Shivakumar said he hasn’t indicated any review of the scheme.
Union minister H D Kumaraswamy alleged state govt is planning to phase out all five guarantee schemes. “Already, under Anna Bhagya scheme, govt has imposed conditions by issuing fresh rules,” he said.