mysuru shakti scheme the free bus travel service for women now has a surprise fallout as many women paying guests pgs in the city are witnessing a sharp decline in the number of inmates with the working women as well as students preferring daily travel on ksrtc buses instead of paying for pgs the pg owners are now struggling to keep their business afloatpushpa manjunath saunshi owner of a pg in kuvempu nagar said strength in her facility has come down by 50 after the launch of the free bus travel scheme we have housing facilities for 50 women but it has come down to 25 working women as well as students were our customers but now both these groups are preferring to travel daily as it is free so we are incurring huge loss she saidthis is the second crisis after the covid19 lockdown our expenses are now skyrocketing with electricity charges alone doubling from rs 8000 to rs 16000 this scheme is draining our customer base we are now planning a marketing campaign to fill our pg she saidbhagya owner of a womens pg in siddartha nagar in the city also echoed a similar opinion she said among the 30 inmates of her pg 9 quit and opted to travel daily by bus i got new inmates immediately but we are facing this challenge after the launch of the new scheme she explainedaccording to womens pg owners those who were from the smaller towns around the city are preferring to return to their houses instead of paying for pgs working women and students from nearby towns like hd kote hunsur and mandya are now preferring to travel daily as there are no travel costs involved for an average standard pg room one needs to pay above rs 4000 a month women are saving on this said shivugowda a pg owner on tyagaraja road in the city there is no association to protect the interests of owners of paying guest facilities he rued