Bommai unveils development plan for Karnataka
BENGALURU: After cancelling his first anniversary celebrations, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Thursday announced a few initiatives, including providing financial assistance and skills training to 10 lakh people to help them become self-employed. The government will also help them market their products, similar to Stree Shakti Self-Help Groups (SHGs).
Bommai told reporters that the initiatives will help people from all sections, including SC/ST, women, working classes, farmers and others, to strengthen them and take the state towards development.
To strengthen SHGs run by women in rural areas, the State government will give them financial aid of Rs 1.5 lakh per group under a special programme. There are 33,000 SHGs in Karnataka which have signed memorandums with banks. These groups will be given training and work, and also a market for their products, and will sign MoUs with aggregators. This will benefit 5lakh women across the state.
The government is planning to extend similar facilities to young men under the Swami Vivekananda Yuvashakti Yojane. Bommai thanked party workers and leaders, and appreciated his cabinet ministers’ work to improve administration. He also lauded former chief minister BS Yediyurappa’s work during the Covid crisis. Stating that the BJP government’s administration is pro-public, Bommai said the Vidyanidhi scholarship programme for children of farmers has so far benefited 9.98 lakh students. The finance department has approved extension of this scheme to children of weavers, taxi drivers and fisherfolk. More than 8,000 classrooms will be constructed in various schools.
Among other schemes, poor SC/ST families would get 75 units of free power, and the direct benefit transfer (DBT) system was also launched. It will benefit about 25 lakh families and cost the State government Rs 700 crore, the CM said.The government also decided to increase scholarships for SC/ST students, besides hostels and residential facilities. Health infrastructure will be enhanced to include 750 Primary Health Centres under the Amruth scheme.
He said Karnataka received the highest investment in the last quarter under Foreign Direct Investment, and is at first place on the NITI Aayog innovation list. At the recent World Economic Forum, Karnataka got Rs 1.15 lakh crore investmet. Bommai said that similar to the PM’s ‘aspiration district model’ where the focus is on backward districts, the State government is stressing on aspiration taluks, and has identified 107 taluks for health and 94 for education. Bengaluru’s development is also on the priority list, with Rs 1,500 crore sanctioned for developing storm water drains.