Govt to fulfil all five pre-poll promises: cm

Asserting that his government will implement the five poll ‘guarantees’ promised ahead of the assembly polls, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday said officials have shared their inputs on financial implications, and the cabinet will meet on 2 June to decide on the implementation.
The cabinet meeting was earlier scheduled for 1 June.
In view of the implementation of guarantees, the Chief Minister today held a meeting with all the Ministers and senior officials of the departments concerned at Vidhana Soudha, the seat of state secretariat and legislature, here.
“We had given five guarantees to the people and regarding these five guarantees, finance department officials have made a presentation. All the Ministers have seen the presentation, it has all the details — proposals and financial implications of the implementation,” Siddaramaiah said.
Speaking to reporters here after the meeting, the CM said, “we have not discussed in today’s meeting, discussion and decision will be on the day after. On Friday at 11 am, I have convened the cabinet meeting, where we will discuss, and after that our decision will be made known to you.”
“But the government has taken a call to implement all the five guarantees”, he added.
The Congress had promised to implement the ‘guarantees’ – 200 units of free power to all households (Gruha Jyoti), Rs 2,000 monthly assistance to the woman head of every family (Gruha Lakshmi), 10 kg of rice free to every member of a BPL household (Anna Bhagya), Rs 3,000 every month for unemployed graduate youth and Rs 1,500 for unemployed diploma holders (both in the age group of 18-25) (YuvaNidhi), and free travel for women in public transport buses (Shakti), on the very first day of assuming power in the state.
There is mounting pressure on the new government from the Opposition parties and various sections of people from across the state, to fulfill its five guarantees as promised ahead of polls.
Asked whether the five guarantees will be implemented at once or one after the other, the CM said, “All those things have not been decided yet, it will be discussed and decided in the cabinet.”