This budget is a mixed bag for bus commuters. We welcome the ‘Makkala Bus Scheme’ through which additional schedules will be operated across the state to benefit students. We are glad that the government recognises that access to education was suffering due to lack of public transport across Karnataka. 100 crores is allotted for this but it is not clear whether this is adequate to serve the needs of students across the state.

This budget is a mixed bag for bus commuters. We welcome the ‘Makkala Bus Scheme’ through which additional schedules will be operated across the state to benefit students. We are glad that the government recognises that access to education was suffering due to lack of public transport across Karnataka. 100 crores is allotted for this but it is not clear whether this is adequate to serve the needs of students across the state.

This budget is a mixed bag for bus commuters. We welcome the ‘Makkala Bus Scheme’ through which additional schedules will be operated across the state to benefit students. We are glad that the government recognises that access to education was suffering due to lack of public transport across Karnataka. 100 crores is allotted for this but it is not clear whether this is adequate to serve the needs of students across the state.

The free bus scheme for women is a step in the right direction. However, if this is for the whole of Karnataka, the amount is clearly insufficient. Secondly, the unorganised sector women workers are the more vulnerable, therefore it is puzzling why the unorganised women workers are left out from the scheme.

It’s good to note that the government is introducing a Vidhya Vahini scheme for students. However, this is limited to 8 lakh girl students which is far lesser than the number of girl students in Karnataka. This scheme should be available to all students, as we had demanded.

In terms of new buses, the bugey has allocated 500 crores for 1200 buses for all 4 RTCs. This is nowhere near sufficent. We had demanded 3000 buses for BMTC alone, and now BMTC may get just 300.
The government has also put a hiring freeze on BMTC, this is crippling BMTC. While some new buses will come, there is no budget for hiring new staff. This may again lead to outsourcing and further weakening BMTC.

While the government has announced some schemes as we demanded, the outlays are nowhere near enough to benefit people at large or adequately support BMTC. We are concerned that BMTC is being weakened and not enough is beng done to build a robust, accessible bus service that Bangalore deserves.