Andhra ministers visit Karnataka to study free bus scheme for women, meet CM Siddaramaiah

The delegation comprising Transport Minister Mandipalli Ramaprasad Reddy, Home Minister Vangalapudi Anitha, and Women and Child Welfare Minister Gummatti Sandhyarani also met Karnataka Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy and senior state officials and held a detailed discussion on Shakti scheme and its feasibility.

“They (Andhra delegation) discussed and got comprehensive information mainly about the success of the Shakti Yojana and the changes that have taken place in terms of women’s empowerment,” Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah said after the meeting.

The delegation comprising Transport Minister Mandipalli Ramaprasad Reddy, Home Minister Vangalapudi Anitha, and Women and Child Welfare Minister Gummatti Sandhyarani also met Karnataka Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy and senior state officials and held a detailed discussion on Shakti scheme and its feasibility.

After the meeting on Friday, AP minister Mandipalli Ramprasad Reddy said his state is also planning to launch similar pro-people schemes.

“The Shakti scheme in Karnataka has become well known in the country as a pro-poor initiative,” he added.

The meeting also comes a day after the Congress government in Karnataka decided to hike the bus fares in the state by 15 per cent as part of efforts to cover rising operational costs following the launch of the Shakti scheme in 2023.

Karnataka Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy, however, claimed on Friday that the government bus fares in the state are lower – even after the 15 per cent hike – when compared to states such as Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Maharashtra “in terms of paise/km currently charged”.

The Karnataka government’s Shakti Yojana for free bus travel for women was implemented on June 11, 2023; and until January 2, 2025 as many as 363 crore women passengers have travelled in state buses under the scheme.

The state government has given a grant of Rs 8,800 crore for running the scheme. The state has released Rs 6,473 crore of the funds to the state transport corporations from June 2023 to November 2024.

Karnataka has cited the non-revision of ticket price for last five years, the increase in diesel price with average daily diesel expenditure from Rs 9.16 crore to Rs 13.21 crore and increase in staff cost due to 15 per cent wage revision during 2020-2023 as major factors for the revision of bus fares in the state.