Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on Saturday said that he never promised free bus passes to students prior to the elections, and that it is not possible to provide subsidies for everything. His statement comes in the backdrop of students protesting and boycotting classes.
The scheme of free bus passes was announced by former chief minister Siddaramaiah and was seen as a populist measure ahead of the Assembly elections.
Road transport corporations did not issue free passes citing non-allocation of funds by the government. Instead, they continued with the old system of issuing bus passes to students at concessional rates.
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While presenting his budget, Mr. Kumaraswamy had announced on the floor of the Assembly that all the schemes announced by the Siddaramaiah government would be continued, but no order was issued on issuing free bus passes. The cost of issuing free passes to 19 lakh students across the State is estimated to be ₹650 crore.
Students boycott classes
With nearly 10,000 students boycotting classes in protest, faculty members of many government colleges had no option but to forgo classes due to poor attendance.
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Ajay Kamath, Bengaluru district secretary of the All India Democratic Students Organisation, said that classes were not held in 500 colleges across Karnataka. In Bengaluru, classes in around 150 colleges were affected.
However, some colleges conducted classes for the few students who turned up.
Mr. Kamath said that although government college principals had sent circulars and made announcements that classes would be held as usual on Saturday, students chose to join to the boycott.