BENGALURU: A day after holding extensive discussions with officials from five department on implementing the Congress guarantees, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday too held a meeting with officials of the Finance deparment on preparing a blueprint for the rollout of the guarantees.
The CM, along with Additional Chief Secretary I S N Prasad and Finance department officials, has been discussing ways to raise mobilise resources for implementing the five Congress guarantees and it is estimated that the government will need an additional Rs 50,000 crore to fund the schemes.
On Wednesday, the CM will hold another round of discussion with the ministers of the five departments concerned and on June 1, he is expected to convene a cabinet meeting to discuss the implementation of the five guarantees and their implementation.
Meanwhile, Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy on Tuesday held a second round of meeting with the managing directors of the BMTC, KSRTC, NWKTC and KKRTC regarding the implementation of free bus travel for women. The minister sought details about the approximate number of women travelling by buses daily, the distance travelled, the revenues being earned by the transport corporations, the financial impact of implementing the free travel scheme for women on the already loss-making transport utilities, cost of fuel, staff salaries, etc.
It is estimated that the transport corporations will need an additional Rs 3,200 crore annually to implement the free travel for women. The officials told Ramalinga Reddy that the corporations have already suffered huge losses during the pandemic and only if the government funds the Sakhi scheme, they can implement it. It was also pointed out the some assets of the corporations are already mortgaged and the government had even released grants towards payment of staff salaries.
Health and Family Welfare Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao held a meeting with department officials and discussed about ordering investigation into alleged scams during the Covid-19 pandemic. Health commissioner Randeep D was also present in the meeting.