CM chairs meeting with officials of five departments on implementing Congress guarantees

BENGALURU: Facing pressure from citizens and the Opposition BJP over implementation of the Congress promises, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday held a meeting with officials of the five departments that will execute the guarantees, at Shakti Bhavan here.

At the meeting, officials of the Finance, Transport, Women and Child Development, Energy and Skill Development departments, along with minsters Krishna Byregowda and Dinesh Gundurao participated.

CM Siddarmaiah chairing a meeting at Shakti Bhavana on Monday.

The CM sought information from the officials about the number of BPL card holders in the state and the benefits being availed by them currently, the number of passengers who travel by buses every day, specially women passengers, the different sections availing free bus passes, the number of power consumers in the state from different categories, SC and ST families which are already getting 75 units of free power, the number of working women in both the organised and unorganised sectors and women employees of transport corporations, women availing pension from the government and the number of diploma holder and graduates who have joined further studies among other details.

The Energy department officials presented details of household which consumed less than 200 units of power in March and have prepared a blueprint for the implementation of the Gruha Jyothi scheme. The scheme may benefit 2.14 crore houses apart from the 1.27 crore BPL families. The officials pointed out that the rollout of the scheme may cost over Rs 12,000 crore annually.

Officials of the Transport department, including the managing directors of the BMTC and KSRTC, also made their presentations at the meeting. Officials of the Women and Child Development department too gave details and department secretary Dr N Manjula made a presentation on the number of beneficiaries and the financial implication of the Gruha Lakshmi scheme.

Senior officials of the Food and Civil Supplies department, including Additional Chief Secretary Javed presented details about the scheme to provide 10 kg of rice per head to BPL families.

After the officials of the five departments left, the CM held discussions with the Finance department, including Principal Secretary I S N Prasad. It was estimated that implementation of the five guarantees of the Congress will cost the government about Rs 50,000 crore annually. The CM directed the Finance department to ensure that the additional expenditure does not become a burden on the state.