No conditions set for women's free travel in govt buses: Ramalinga Reddy
Bengaluru, May 30: Karnataka Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy on Tuesday reiterated that the bus travel for women will be free and there will be no conditions attached.
With people curious and anxious to see the five guarantees implemented in the state, which according to the ruling Congress’ estimate may cost the state exchequer at least Rs 50,000 crore annually, the Transport Minister said the free bus ride for women will not have any guidelines.
"We don’t have any guidelines. We have said it’s free (bus travel) for women. There are no criteria like working women or anyone else. It will be free for women who travel by the bus," the Minister told reporters during a press conference.
When it was brought to his notice that there are 3.5 crore women in the state, Reddy said, "Their travel will be free if they all opt for bus." When reporters repeatedly asked whether it will be free travel for women in all government buses, he said, "The final decision will be taken by the Cabinet. Our party has announced free bus travel for all women.” The Minister said Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had sought details about the expenditure. Accordingly, the Principal Secretary of the Transport Department gathered all the information and shared it with the government.
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There are four state-owned transport corporations in Karnataka. They are Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation, Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation, North West Karnataka Road Transport Corporation and Kalyana Karnataka Road Transport Corporation.
According to the details shared by Reddy, the cost of operations of four state-owned transport corporations during 2022-23 was Rs 12,750.49 crore. The traffic and other revenue details in the last fiscal was Rs 8,946.85 crore.
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574 players for IPL auctions: 366 Indians, Pant, Iyer in top bracket, 13-year-old Vaibhav youngest
New Delhi, Nov 15: Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul and Arshdeep Singh will headline a 574-strong list of players with top base price of Rs 2 crore at the upcoming Indian Premier League auction scheduled in Saudi Arabia's Jeddah on November 24 and 25.
Thirteen-year-old India U-19 cricketer Vaibhav Suryavanshi from Bihar is the youngest among the lot at Rs 30 lakh base price.
The BCCI on Friday pruned the initial list of 1574 players down to 574 out of which 366 are Indians and 208 from overseas. All the current India players are in top base price bracket.
Apart from Pant, set to be the costliest buy at the auction with a team like Punjab Kings aiming to go the distance with Rs 110.50 crore in its kitty, the other big names include IPL winning captain Shreyas Iyer, India's most prolific T20I bowler Arshdeep Singh, KL Rahul, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal and Avesh Khan.
There are 81 players in the top bracket while 27 are in Rs 1.5 crore category. There are 18 in the Rs 1.25 crore category while 23 have priced themselves at Rs 1 crore.
Jos Buttler of England also enjoys the top base price bracket of Rs 2 crore along with countrymen Harry Brook and Jonny Bairstow while the retired James Anderson, at Rs 1.25 crore base price, has made it to the curtailed list despite T20 not being his strongest format.
The biggest names in the top bracket from overseas are Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje from South Africa, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Starc from Australia. Marco Jansen and Rachin Ravindra are priced at Rs 1.25 crore.
There are 48 capped Indians while 193 are capped overseas players.
Former India U-19 World Cup winning skipper Unmukt Chand, who has migrated to the United States, has made the cut as Associate member nation player while seamer Saurabh Nethravalkar, who was a revelation during T20 World Cup, wasn't shortlisted.
Italy's Thomas Draca, who plays for MI Emirates, also didn't make the cut.
