HASSAN: Minister for Women and Child Welfare H.K. Kumaraswamy has said that bus pass would be given at a concession to all 10 lakh people with physical disability in the State. This was decided at the Cabinet meeting on May 15. He was addressing presspersons after a department review meeting at the zilla panchayat office here on Thursday.

Mr. Kumaraswamy said that at present, 50,000 people were being given these bus pass. The cost of a bus pass, which could be used up to a distance of 100 km, was Rs. 1,650 a year. Of this, the beneficiary had to pay Rs. 250, while the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) would pay Rs. 410 and the State Government Rs. 990. The scheme would cost the State exchequer Rs. 120 crore a year.

Mr. Kumaraswamy said that a "Social Security Directorate" would be formed to monitor pensions for the elderly, widows and persons with physical disability.

He said that at present pension was being provided to seven lakh senior citizens, six lakh widows, and 33,000 people with physical disability in the State.

With regard to the much-publicised Bhagya Lakshmi Yojana, under which Rs. 10,000 will be deposited in the name of newborn girls, which is yet to take off, Mr. Kumaraswamy said that 2.25 lakh girls were born in the State last year, of whom 1.3 lakh were from below-poverty-line families and were, therefore, eligible to get the Rs. 10,000 deposit. The deposits would be made in June.

The Minister said that the Supreme Court in its recent judgment had rejected the appeal of the State to regularise anganawadi workers. However, the Government had raised their honorarium and given them special incentives whenever they were involved in survey and other work.

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