Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP leaders for mocking the Congress government’s five guarantee schemes and said that now, one of the guarantee schemes —Shakti — has benefited 100 crore women.
“The opposition BJP and Mr. Modi had said that our guarantee schemes will cause financial bankruptcy in the State if they are implemented. No government in the country has implemented such a huge scheme successfully. Now the BJP should stop lying to the people,” Mr. Siddaramaiah said.
He was speaking at the “Shakti Guaranteege Shathakoti Sambhrama” event held at Vidhana Soudha on Friday (November 24). “This scheme has benefited crores of women in the State, and our aim is to empower them. We will not heed to the opposition parties’ negative remarks about the scheme,” he added.
Since the Shakti scheme was launched in June this year, a total of 100,47,56,184 women passengers have travelled on the four RTCs’ buses till November 22. The ticket value of women passengers who travelled is ₹2397,80,11,562.
Meanwhile, Ningavva Shiggadi, 70, whose pictures gained viral attention on social media in June during the launch of the Shakti scheme, was honoured by Mr. Siddaramaiah during the event. The images of Ningavva expressing gratitude by bowing down as she boarded a bus was widely shared in June this year.
As many as 83 accident-free drivers were awarded with gold medals by the Chief Minister at the event along with ₹ 5000 cash award and certificate of appreciation.
