Monitor News Bureau
BENGALURU: Forming flying squads for the safety of women and providing free smartphones are some of the promises that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has made to the women of Karnataka in its manifesto which was released on Friday.
The BJP in its manifesto for the upcoming elections said that if they come to power in the state, they will be forming “Kittur Rani Chennamma Flying Squads” to attend to the distress calls of women in Bengaluru quickly. Aiming at increasing the safety of women in the state, the party also promised to form a Special Investigation Cell under a woman Police Officer and employing 1,000 police women to investigate all pending crimes against women.
Targetting the women below poverty line, the BJP promised to provide free sanitary napkins to the underprivileged women and girl students. Other women can get sanitary napkins at the cost of Rs 1 under the new “Stree Suvidha Scheme.” “Mukhya Mantri Smartphone Yojane” to provide women from BPL families with free smartphones has also been announced.
They have proposed in the manifesto to increase the amount payable at maturity under the Bhagyalakshmi scheme to Rs 2 lakh. The proposal to form a Rs 10,000 Crore “Stree Unnati Fund” to set up one of the largest women run co-operatives and establish “Stree Unnati Stores” to market its products has also been floated in the manifesto.
The manifesto also promises to give loans upto Rs 2 lakh to women only self-help groups at 1 per cent interest per annum.
Releasing the manifesto, BJP’s chief ministerial face BS Yeddyurappa also laid focus on the welfare of farmers. “We will allocate Rs 1,50,000 crore for various irrigation projects in Karnataka and ensure water reaches to every field in the state,” he said.
