Siddaramaiah was sworn in as Chief Minister for the second term, along with state Congress president D K Shivakumar as Deputy Chief Minister, and eight legislators as Ministers today, exactly a week after the party swept the Assembly polls in Karnataka.
Siddaramaiah addressed several guarantees promised by the Congress as part of its electoral pledge in the state in a press conference after the oath ceremony.
Check out what Siddaramaiah said after first cabinet meeting:
Siddaramaiah said that Karnataka will first execute the Gruha Jyothi plan. “The Gruha Jothi scheme, under which 200 units of electricity will be free, will be implemented first. It will cost approximately Rs 1,200 crore. I don't think it is impossible for our government to raise Rs 50,000 crore in a year,” he said.
He further mentioned that the newly-elected Congress government is currently working on the Gruha Lakshmi scheme. “The Gruha Lakshmi scheme, under which Rs 2,000 will be given to women, will be implemented soon. We are still working out how much we will be spending on it. We will let you know the cost after the next cabinet meeting,” Siddaramaiah said.
The chief minister said that unemployed graduates will be awarded Rs 3,000 per month for two years from this academic year.
Siddaramaiah promised that bus travel for women will be free. “We will issue passes for free rides for women. This scheme is only for the Kannadigas and not for outsiders. Irrespective of how much it will burden the exchequer, we will implement it,” chief minister said.
The chief minister said that the majority of these projects and guarantees will be finalised by the next cabinet meeting. “We'll iron out the details and share them. We will mention all the details, like who are unemployed young people and who will be covered under what scheme, and other such things. We'll have to look into these finer details before sharing them,” he said, adding that the Assembly session will be held for three days from Monday to Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the newly sworn-in Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the state suffering a loss as its legitimate special grant of Rs 5,495 crore mentioned in the interim report of the 15th Finance Commission was not given to it.
"In the interim report of the 15th Finance Commission, it was recommended that Karnataka should get a special grant of Rs 5,495 crore, which the BJP government in Karnataka did not take up. Was there any government which did more harm to the state?" Siddaramaiah told reporters.