‘Recognise guarantee model of Karnataka’

Bengaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday urged the Centre to recognise the “Guarantee Model of Karnataka” and provide greater fiscal support and the rightful share of revenues to empower states to innovate and invest in their people.

He was speaking at an event organised by the Fiscal Policy Institute here.

“Our goal is to ensure that the Guarantee Model of Karnataka becomes a national template for inclusive development, one that bridges regional and social inequalities and strengthens the spirit of cooperative federalism,” he said.

The Congress government’s five guarantee schemes are —200 units of free power to all households (Gruha Jyoti), Rs 2,000 monthly assistance to the woman head of every family (Gruha Lakshmi), the additional 5 kg of rice to every member of a BPL household (Anna Bhagya), Rs 3,000 every month for unemployed graduate youth and Rs 1,500 for diploma holders for two years (Yuva Nidhi), and free travel for women in public transport buses (Shakti). Backing the five guarantee schemes, Siddaramaiah said the journey began not in the corridors of Vidhana Soudha, but in the lives of ordinary people. “The guarantee schemes were therefore not populist giveaways, but policy correctives,” he said.