Chief Minister Kumaraswamy kicks off Kayaka Scheme
Belagavi, Dec 20: “The government would take measures to reach the benefits of interest-free micro loan under the Badavara Bandhu scheme to total 4.5 lakh street vendors families in the state. In the same way, the government is mulling to purchase products prepared by women associations under Kayaka Scheme”, said Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy.
Inaugurating the Kayaka Scheme and distributing the cheques to the beneficiaries under Badavara Bandhu scheme, organized by the Cooperative Department at Dharmanatha Bhavan here on Thursday, the CM said that training would be given to the women associations to prepare various products and marketing them under the Kayaka scheme. A decision would be taken shortly to purchase such products from the government to help those women associations, he added.
The poor people have been suffering due to loans. To help those families, the government has implemented Badavara Bandhu and Kayaka scheme. In coming days, many schemes of such nature would be implemented for the benefit of the poor, he said.
Farmers are being misled
The government has a big challenge of waiving of over Rs 46,000 crore loans. Unfortunately, some people have been misleading the farmers who should not be carried away by such false propaganda, he said appealing the farmers to have faith on him.
Under the loan waiver scheme, 12 districts in Belagavi and Kalaburgi division in North Karnataka would get the benefit of waiver of loans to the tune of Rs 29,000 crore. Even then, some vested interests have been trying to create an issue that the government was neglecting the North Karnataka. There was no reason to neglect North Karnataka as he does not have such discrimination like North Karnataka or South Karnataka. There was no need to get panic as the government was committed to protect the interests of the poor and farmers, he said.
Farmers loan waiver scheme was a model to the entire country due to which officials of other states including the central government were getting information and coming to the state for the study. In order to alleviate the farmers from loans, the government was planning a different and innovative farming system, but it would require some time. Since he was not in favour of any caste or religion, he wanted to develop the state as a model state in the country, he declared.
Kayaka Scheme
Cooperative Minister Bandeppa Kashempur said that as per Basavanna’s words ‘Work is worship’, the main objective of the project was to empower the working class. Kayaka scheme was a model in the entire country as the government would give interest-free loans up to Rs 5 lakh. The government was also planning to come out with a scheme to ensure marketing facility to the products prepared by the women associations, he said.
Tourism Minister SR Mahesh, Minor Industries Minister Srinivas, Animal Husbandry Minister Venkatarao Nadagouda, MLA Balakrishna, Mayor Basappa Chikkaladinni, Bagalkot DCC Bank president and former minister Ajay Kumar Sarnaik and others were present on the occasion.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Constitution amendment bill defeat was BJP’s first embarrassment in Parliament: Margaret Alva
Bengaluru (PTI): Senior Congress leader Margaret Alva on Monday said that the constitution amendment bill's defeat in the Lok Sabha on April 17 was the first embarrassment faced by the BJP-led government in Parliament.
She also alleged that the BJP has no real concern regarding women’s reservation.
The opposition INDIA bloc defeated the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill that sought to facilitate the implementation of women's reservation by expanding the strength of the Lok Sabha, apart from making changes to delimitation.
"This is the first embarrassment and defeat faced by the NDA government in the Lok Sabha," the former Governor of Gujarat and Rajasthan said in a press conference here.
According to her, the women’s reservation has been under discussion since the time of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
"During Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure, a 14-member committee was formed, and I was appointed as its chairperson. We prepared a report after studying what needed to be done to enhance the dignity of women across 12 sectors. This was submitted to the government in 1989,” Alva, 84-year-old veteran Congress leader, said.
She said political empowerment for women was emphasised in that report, without which, empowerment in any other sphere is not possible.
“Many people in Parliament used to question me — should we vacate seats for women and stay at home cooking? Why insist on this? Has anyone written these seats in your name? This debate has been ongoing since 1975,” Alva explained.
The Congress leader said Rajiv Gandhi had introduced 33 per cent reservation for women in local bodies.
“At that time, all opposition parties united and defeated the Bill,” she pointed out.
Again, during the tenure of former Prime Minister late P V Narasimha Rao, the 33 per cent reservation Bill in local bodies was passed.
“It was the Congress party that first introduced women’s reservation. Now they are falsely accusing us of being anti-women,” Alva charged.
In 2023, the Women’s Reservation Bill was passed with much fanfare, but it was not immediately implemented.
According to her, a condition was imposed for its implementation that it would be enforced based on census data.
"Once it is in the statute book, what is preventing its implementation? Two years for the census and another two years for delimitation — this means it cannot be implemented by 2029. It was not given in 2024, and there is no possibility even in 2029," Alva charged the BJP-led government at the Centre.
The Congress leader said the BJP is saying that the Bill can be implemented based on the 2011 Census, but when the same suggestion was made in 2023, the BJP rejected it.
On increasing the Lok Sabha seats by 50 per cent, she sought to know the basis for it.
“Where did this (idea) come from? Whose advice was taken? Was it decided by the RSS? Or ordered by a court?” Alva asked.
The former union minister said the Constitution amendment bill, which was defeated on April 17 appears to favour certain North Indian states.
“We pay taxes, but they receive greater benefits and allocations. If seats are increased by 50 per cent based on their calculations, we would get only 14 additional seats, while they would get 40. How is this fair?” she questioned.
While 298 members voted in support of the bill in Lok Sabha, 230 MPs voted against it. Out of 528 members who voted, the bill required 352 votes for a two-third majority.
According to the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, Lok Sabha seats were to be increased to "operationalise" the women's reservation act before the 2029 parliamentary polls, following a delimitation exercise based on the 2011 Census.
Seats were also to be increased in state and Union territory Assemblies to accommodate 33 per cent reservation for women.
