Bengaluru, July 14 (IANS) Under the Shakti free travel scheme for women, in celebration of the number of free trips for women passengers reaching 500 crore, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar on Monday handed over the ticket for the 500 croreth trip to a woman passenger on a BMTC bus at Windsor Circle in Bengaluru.

Speaking to the media in Bengaluru on Monday, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah stated, “As part of the celebration marking the 500th crore journey under the government’s ambitious Shakti scheme, a symbolic ticket was handed over on Monday to the 500th crore woman passenger.”

During the 2023 Assembly elections, five guarantee schemes were announced.

Following the Cabinet decision to implement them immediately after the government assumed office on May 20, 2023, the Shakti scheme was launched on June 11, the CM stated.

Since then, free travel for women in government buses across the state has been made available, CM Siddaramaiah said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister and Karnataka Congress President, D.K. Shivakumar described the Shakti scheme as a model for the entire country.

“Our government will not stop the guarantee schemes for any reason. As long as God gives us strength and the people give us authority, these schemes will continue,” he said.

“The Congress party has provided many welfare programmes to the people of this country. Various pension schemes, MGNREGA, bank nationalisation — no one, including the BJP, can stop these programmes. These are programmes that are essential for people’s hearts and livelihoods. They will continue without interruption,” Dy CM Shivakumar added.

“This scheme enables women across the state to travel free of cost. They can visit their loved ones without spending any money. Many working women save between Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 every month because of this,” Shivakumar said.

“A woman happily offered me bread and peanut pancakes as a token of appreciation. No matter how much criticism our scheme receives, it will eventually fade away. Our work will remain permanent. We are very happy because we have kept the promises we made. We are empowered by the strength given by the people to implement all this,” he said.

The Shakti scheme, one of the five guarantees of the Congress, enables women to travel in all RTC buses across the state including the city buses for free.

–IANS

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