Shakti smart cards to be distributed in a month

BENGALURU: The Shakti free travel scheme for women was the first of the Congress government’s guarantees to be rolled out, but even after over 90 days of its implementation, the ‘Shakti’ smart cards distribution process is yet to start.

Women passengers are still traveling carrying their Aadhaar card and ID cards with them. Now, the Transport Department says it will soon begin the process of distribution of smart cards.

Before launching the project, the government had planned to give smart cards to women to avail free bus rides. Besides, the government also instructed the Transport Department on the process of issuing smart cards. But the process has not been completed even after three months. At present, the process has reached its final stage and the authorities have informed that smart card distribution will start next month.

The process is issuing smart cards is in the last stage, but has not been finalised due to some technical issues. The delivery process for the card is also likely to start within the next month.

Apart from this, the Transport Department is keeping a close watch on those who get smart cards using fake Aadhaar cards. People can get the smart cards through BangaloreOne, GramaOne, KarnatakaOne and Seva Sindhu centres. The card will only be available if the residential address of the beneficiary is from Karnataka. If the resident is from a different state, they must change the address on the Aadhaar card. If they have not changed the address, they will not be eligible for the scheme.

At present, the department is discussing with the experts about the technical issues of how to prevent fakes and forgeries in the distribution of smart cards as well as how to detect them using advanced technology, and it is expected that the final distribution process will start soon.