Smiling faces as women take free bus rides; activists urge govt. to drop smart card and domicile norm
The Hindu
Free travel in ordinary buses brought happiness to the faces of women passengers on Sunday as the much awaited Shakti scheme was launched by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah
Free travel in ordinary buses brought happiness to the faces of women passengers on Sunday as the much awaited Shakti scheme was launched by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
The main intention behind this scheme is said to increase the work participation rate of women and to promote public transportation in the State.
Mahamata Shankar, a commuter to Mysuru from Bengaluru, said: “Many people are saying it is a freebie, but I don’t agree. The scheme will help a woman save a lot of money which will help her family too. I am happy to see a lot of smiling faces today on this bus. Saving money for a woman is very important to lead a confident and independent life”.
“Student bus pass for each semester would cost ₹1,500. Now as this is made free for girls, ₹3,000 will be saved every year which i can use for buying books or even spend for learning something new like music or art,” said Pallavi Rao, a student from Malleswaram. Ms. Pallavi feels that this would also ease her parents’ burden.
Meanwhile, women conductors were happy to issue zero tickets to women on Sunday. Sharing the experience, K. Radha, a conductor in BMTC from Majestic, said: “It was a happy moment for me today to issue free tickets to women. In my 25-year career, today is a memorable day. The scheme will benefit a lot of women and especially thsoe from poor backgrounds. Today I have issued around 125 tickets for women. I didn’t expect a lot of women to come on the first day. But many came and I am happy about it”.
Confusion persisted on many bus trips in the city as many women were not aware of the rule that they must show a government issued photo ID card and that only people with Karnataka domicile were eligible.
Meanwhile, many conductors were also confused about issuing zero tickets to women and normal tickets to other passengers. Checking the ID added to the time they took to issue tickets.
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