5 flagship guarantees to be rolled out in 3 months: CM Siddaramaiah

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said his government will implement the five flagship guarantees in a phased manner over the next three months amid mounting pressure for their roll out.

The Cabinet greenlighted the schemes' roadmap on Friday, presenting Siddaramaiah, also the finance minister, a tough fiscal challenge as he has to mobilise a whopping Rs 53,000-Rs 61,000 cr to execute them.

Gruha Jyoti, Gruha Lakshmi, Anna Bhagya, Shakti and Yuva Nidhi will be implemented in the current fiscal year, Siddaramaiah said at a packed news conference after chairing a special Cabinet meeting on the guarantees that propelled the Congress to power.

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The schemes will also cover transgenders, he added.

Siddaramaiah said he and his deputy DK Shivakumar had signed guarantee cards that were distributed to voters before the May 10 Assembly polls.

"Opposition parties criticised us even before implementation. The Cabinet meeting was specially called to discuss the implementation of the five guarantees. We discussed it at length," the CM said.

Shivakumar described the Cabinet decision as "historic" and "huge" while insisting that the Congress had kept its promise. "This is the land of Basavanna where one walks the talk," he said.

Asked about the financial implications of the guarantees, Siddaramaiah declined to comment. "I'll provide those details later," he said.

In July, Siddaramaiah is slated to present a record 14th budget as finance minister.

According to one official estimate, the cost for rolling out Gruha Lakshmi is approximately Rs 30,000 crore (1.2 crore women). Similarly, Gruha Jyothi will cost Rs 15,000 crore (1.4 crore households), Anna Bhagya Rs 1,000 crore (1.31 cr families), Shakti Rs 4,000 crore and Yuva Nidhi Rs 2,000 crore (about 5 lakh youths), respectively.

Sources in the finance department said the government is broadly looking at additional borrowings and rationalising expenditure by cutting funds to or shutting down a few projects started by previous governments.

While Siddaramaiah explained the modalities, the government is likely to issue detailed guidelines on rolling out the schemes.

Under Gruha Jyothi, for example, there is no clarity on whether or not consumers have to pay fixed charges and taxes. Another ambiguity is that there are 2.14 crore domestic power connections against 1.6 crore families. "We need to rationalise this," a senior official said.