Mangaluru: The NSUI is not untroubled with the JD(S)-Congress government’s decision that cancelled free bus passes for students in the state.

Though the finance department has cancelled the proposal sent by KSRTC to issue free bus passes to all categories of students citing financial burden, the NSUI has urged the government to review the decision. NSUI has submitted a memorandum to chief minister H D Kumaraswamy and deputy chief minister G Parameshwara, urging the government to issue free bus passes in KSRTC buses for all students.

Currently, the KSRTC has been issuing free bus passes only to SC/ST students. However, in the previous budget, the state government decided to issue free bus passes in KSRTC, to all categories of students studying from class 1 to PU.

“However, after the formation of new JD(S)-Congress coalition government, the finance department has cancelled KSRTC’s new proposal to issue free bus passes to all students in the state,” said Sawad Sullia, general secretary, NSUI, Dakshina Kannada district.

Sawad told TOI that the NSUI has urged the government to change its decision and commence distribution of free bus passes to all students.

“Earlier, the government was distributing free bus passes to SC/ST students only. Hence, the NSUI requested the government to issue free bus passes in KSRTC buses to all students without considering their social and economic status.

Following this, the government decided to issue free bus passes to all students, and the decision was announced in the previous budget too. Accordingly, the KSRTC was all set to commence distribution of bus passes from the 2018-19 academic year. However, the finance department has cancelled a proposal sent by the KSRTC, citing the reason of excessive financial burden on the government,” Sawad said.

“As many as 22 lakh students from class 1 to the PU level in the state will be benefited if the government starts issuing free bus passes,” he said. “The government should start issuing free bus passes to all students. Similarly, the government should also consider extending the benefits of the laptop distribution scheme to all students, rather than limiting it to minorities,” he added.