You all must have heard about Karnataka’s ‘Shakti Scheme’ for women. Hundreds of textile workers, domestic workers, and other poor to middle-class women who use buses for work purposes have benefited from savings from the Shakti (free transport) scheme. But recently, a woman shared pictures of her bus tickets, and that has created confusion among netizens regarding interstate travel on the Shakti scheme.
Can You Travel Outside Karnataka On Shakti Scheme?
A Lady shared this.She Took the Belagavi Kolhapur bus up to Nippani. Earlier she was not charged under Shakti but now she was charged see the return tickets as well. @nw_krtc any clarification She had a valid Aadhar card which she had shown the last time pic.twitter.com/cf7KjXJpdM
— All About Belgaum | Belagavi News (@allaboutbelgaum) August 11, 2023
With the Shakti scheme, women can travel within the state for free, but now people are a bit confused about the same. A woman shared pictures of two tickets where she took the state-run bus from Belagavi to Nippani. She claimed that earlier she was not charged for this travel under the Shakti scheme, but now she was charged for the same.
The two tickets show the woman’s travel from Belagavi to Nippani and return tickets. In one picture, the tickets were bought on July 21, and she was charged no money under the Shakti scheme.
The next picture showed the ticket where she was charged ₹74 for her travel from Belagavi to Nippani.
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Conductors Inform In Advance
If it’s inter-state bus like Chikkodi Pune, then Stree Shakti scheme is not applicable to ladies passangers. Before onboarding to bus also conductors of the bus inform this
— Omkar (@omkardiwan922) August 11, 2023
The North Western Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NWKRTC) was contacted via social media for more information by the user. In response, the transport corporation stated that it had forwarded it to the relevant section.
Netizens were confused when they looked at the pictures shared by the woman. One of the special media users mentioned that the conductors already inform people before onboarding about the scheme’s applicability.
More than 36 crore women have received free transportation thanks to the Shakti scheme, which the government unveiled on June 11. The program makes it crystal clear that it only applies to women who live in Karnataka and only on buses that are travelling within the state.
Additionally, the government had said that people might travel for free for a distance of no more than 20 kilometres between neighbouring states.
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What are your views on this?
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