Basavaraj Bommai rains sops in first cabinet meet

Bengaluru: Basavaraj Bommai, the new Chief Minister of Karnataka announced a slew of measures to reach out to people including a scholarship programme for children of agriculturists, on Wednesday at a cost of Rs 1,000 crore. He also underlined that vaccination to face third Covid wave would be his priority.

Bommai, after holding a cabinet meeting, announced that a scholarship scheme for children of agriculturists has been introduced in the state as per his vision. "It's going to help students from agrarian families to pursue higher education," he stated.

Bommai himself chaired the meeting with the Chief Secretary and other top government officers as the full fledged cabinet is yet to be formed.

The scheme will be drafted in consultation with experts and implemented soon for the first time in the state, he added.

Under Sandhya Surakha Yojana, 35.98 lakh beneficiaries got Rs 1,000 so far, will get Rs 1,200. This will increase the burden on the exchequer by Rs 862 crore.

The amount under the Widow pension scheme has been increased by Rs 200 and physically challenged persons are going to get Rs 200 more.

These measures have been taken considering inflation. The section of the society which needs social security will be reached out by our government, he underlined.

He further explained that he had given orientation for the bureaucrats in the first meeting. "I have stressed inter-departmental coordination, teamwork and time-bound implementation of schemes to avoid extra expenditure and corruption," he stated.

He has said that the "chalta hai" attitude from the government officials will not be tolerated.

"I have especially spoken with the Chief Secretary on 'file clearance drive', wherein information of movement of all files in government departments will be obtained in two days and should be disposed of in about 15 days," he explained.

Bommai said directions are given to cut down on unnecessary expenditures by a minimum of 5 per cent without affecting programmes as the Covid situation affected the economy.