Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Thursday launched a slew of welfare measures, including the Swami Vivekananda Yuvashakti Yojane that aims at empowerment of rural youth, to mark first anniversary of his government.
Under the Swami Vivekananda Yuvashakti programme, a self-help group of youth would be created in each of 28,000 villages with a seed money for ₹1.5 lakh for every group, the Chief Minister said at a press conference.
The scheme would also aim at empowering about five lakh youth to take up self-employment besides linking their SHGs with banks and markets, he said.
The other schemes that were launched on Thursday include providing 75 units of free power a month to 25 lakh poor SC/ST families at a cost of ₹700 crore, building 8,000 school rooms under the Viveka scheme of improving school infrastructure, Babu Jagjivan Ram self-employment scheme, upgrading 100 primary health centres into community health centres, Sthree Samarthya scheme of empowerment of Sthree Shakti groups, extension of the Vidya Nidhi scholarship programme to children of weavers, fishermen and taxi drivers, besides the Punya Koti scheme of adopting cows in goshalas or making an annual donation of ₹11,000 to take care of them.
For all communities
While launching the schemes, the Chief Minister promised to strengthen the State’s economy through comprehensive programmes so that it would help development of all communities and classes.
Listing the achievements of his government in the last one year, he said the focus had been given to the welfare of all sections, especially SCs/STs and the poor. Also serious efforts had been made towards removing regional imbalance, he said.
He maintained that people of the State would give him “10 out of 10” for his performance in the last one year.
Mr. Bommai, who abruptly cancelled the Janotsava programme that was scheduled to be held at Doddaballapur to mark the first anniversary of his government, maintained that he had gone by his conscience while making such a decision. “I decided to cancel the programme following anguish among BJP workers about the murder of Hindu activist Praveen,” he said.
On Cabinet expansion
To a query on the status of ministerial expansion, the Chief Minister said it was necessary for the party to take a stand in this regard. “I will arrive at an appropriate decision in this regard in consultation with the party central leaders perhaps during my next visit to Delhi,” he said.
