Ticket value of Shakti Yojana scheme costs Rs 139 crore

Bengaluru: Among the five promises made by the Congress government, the Shakti Scheme has been implemented and the number of women passengers travelling in government buses has set a record.

Before the elections, the Congress party had announced that it would implement five guarantees. After Congress came to power, free bus travel was implemented for women and all the women of the state are utilising the government free bus service. Several temples across the state are getting more devotees in numbers, especially on weekends the temple management are finding it difficult to handle. In the background of women traveling in government buses for free, the ticket value of women passengers in government buses crossed Rs 100 crores.

Under the Shakti Yojana, more than 5 crore women have travelled free in government buses for the last 10 days, and the total ticket value of female passengers travelled crosses Rs 139 crore. Especially, the maximum number of women travelled are in BMTC buses, one and a half crore women each are traveling free in BMTC and KSRTC buses.

The number of women travellers in free ride in each corporation in the last 10 days are KSRTC (1,74,41,522), BMTC (2,00,31,398), NWKSRTC (1,44,70,556), KKRTC (78,75,961) and the total ticket value of the women passengers travelled from 11 June to 22 June amount is Rs 139,53,04,186.

The buses operated by the three state-owned transport utilities KSRTC, NWKRTC and KKRTC are getting robust response from women, interestingly those running to popular temple towns are jam packed these past few days. Women’s participation in the workforce is shrinking, so let’s hope that promoting free bus travel would empower more women to join the workforce.