Hours after taking oath as the chief minister of Karnataka, DK Shivakumar rolled out a slew of welfare measures, with a focus on youth recruitment and students.
Among the announcements made after his first cabinet meeting in the state was the decision to issue free bus passes to students. Shivakumar took oath earlier today at the Lok Bhavan in Bengaluru, along with 13 other ministers who were inducted into the cabinet.
Free bus passes, jobs push: Shivakumar's welfare measures on Day 1 as CM
Shivakumar said that travel for students in government buses would now be free of cost. “We will issue free bus pass to all students,” he said. These will be applicable for non-luxury government buses.
In a bid to address the issue of unemployment, the Karnataka CM said his government would set up a private employment exchange where people can enrol for jobs, PTI news agency reported.
“Modalities for private employment exchange will be finalised within a month,” Shivakumar stated.
Shivakumar further said that for youth recruitment in government jobs, a calendar of events would be announced soon and further promised decisions to address and prevent the migration of farmers, according to PTI.
“The government has already announced 56,000 jobs. By the next cabinet meeting, we will call all departments and release a calendar indicating when notifications will be issued and how the recruitment process will begin,” he said.
Shivakumar also said the state government would extend the drive to issue A-Khata document to unauthorised buildings across Karnataka, and announced the setting up of 10,000 Bharat Jodo Yuva Sangha to raise leadership quality and build social harmony.
₹10 lakh would be given to the Bharat Jodo Yuva Sangha in each village Panchayat, he added. The CM said that each gram panchayat and urban ward would have one such youth body with 150 to 200 members.
The cabinet also approved an outlay of ₹2,000 crore for road infrastructure works in Bengaluru, including areas under the Greater Bengaluru Authority and the Bengaluru Development Authority, PTI reported.
