Special grants for women in Karnataka Budget: Bommai

BENGALURU: Financial assistance for women to take care of their households will be announced in the state budget to be presented by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on February 17, ahead of the state Assembly elections which are scheduled to be held in a few months.

Speaking to the media in Bengaluru, the CM said financial aid will be given to women heads of families to run their households, to take care of day-to-day needs and also medical expenses. “The allocation could be between Rs 1,000 and Rs 3,000. We are working on the details and resource mobilisation,” he said.

The CM said the government will be launching ‘Stree Samarthya Yojane’ this month to generate self-employment for around five lakh women in the state. The Stree Shakti groups will be given Rs 5 lakh financial assistance and market linkage for their products, he said.

Jt session date decision in next cabinet meeting

The government has already started the Swami Vivekananda Yuva Shakti Yojana, which aims at creating self-employment for around 5 lakh youth with an end-to-end approach, the CM said. Bommai said the state’s revenue collection for the first three quarters of the financial year exceeded the target. “I have decided to present a pro-people budget focusing on welfare programmes for the working class, women, youth, far­mers and people from the OBC and SC/STs,” he said. He said it will be an election budget as polls are nearing. He added that the government is also studying many programmes announced by Assam, Gujarat and other states, to launch them in Karnataka.

The date for the joint session of the state legislature will be decided in the next cabinet meeting and the budget will be presented on February 17 for which the process of pre-budget meetings has already begun, he said.

Meanwhile, the state government has asked the Centre to give a push for infrastructure projects in the state in the Union budget. In the meeting called by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the state government gave details of its expectations from the Union budget, the CM said.