1.11 cr women in Karnataka to receive Rs 2,000 each

New Delhi Karnataka government on Wednesday said that it will launch the Gruha Lakshmi scheme, one of the world’s biggest Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme for women.

Congress had announced during the run up to the assembly elections earlier this year, in Karnataka to transfer Rs 2,000 each to 1.11 crore women head of families and said that this will give relief to women from inflation.

“The Congress government of Karnataka is going to fulfill one more of its guarantees. The Gruha Lakshmi scheme is starting from today. Under this, Rs 2,000 will be directly transferred every month to the accounts of women heads of 1.35 crore households in the state. This will definitely give relief to the women of Karnataka from Modi made inflation,” Congress General Secretary communication in-charge Jairam Ramesh said in a tweet.

Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters here, Karnataka Congress in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala said: “Today, we are happy to announce that one of the guarantees that we promised in run up to assembly elections will be fulfilled, which is very dear to CPP chairperson Sonia Gandhi.” He said that the Congress government of Karnataka will launch the world’s biggest Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) Scheme of Griha Lakshmi for women. He said that Rs 1.35 lakh crore will be put in the bank accounts of women heads of family. The registration for the scheme will start from Wednesday at 5 p.m. from the Vidhan Souda.

Surjewala said that registration will be done at 7,000 Bapuji Seva Kendra in rural Karnataka and Karnataka 1 or Bengaluru 1 in urban areas. “If any women are unable to reach to the centre, the workers will assist them for registering in the scheme,” he said, adding that the registration will be a continuous process.

Surjewala, who is also a Congress general secretary said that before the assembly election, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi had said that they will fight against inflation and promised the guarantee under Gruha Lakshmi.

The money will be transferred in the account from August 15 to 20, he said. He added that in run up to the elections, the party connected with women and they highlighted how inflation, price of LPG cylinders have affected their budgets. Party leaders Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar and party workers took up the issue in the state and the people voted for the Congress.

The Congress leader said that under the Gruha Lakshmi scheme, according to the ration card details, there are 1.28 crore women heads of family in Karnataka. He said that every household, except for those, which pay income tax, will get Rs 2,000 every month irrespective of caste, creed or religion.

He said that in the first year, 1.11 crore beneficiaries will get benefited receiving a total of Rs 18,000 crore. In the next year, once the registration is complete, the number of beneficiaries will be 1.35 crores, who will receive Rs 30,000 crore.

He also said appealed Prime Minister Narendra Modi that there is still time for him to take a cue and adopt the path shown by the Congress government in Karnataka and adopt welfare schemes for the people. Taking a pot shot at the Prime Minister for dubbing the guarantees as revadis, Surjewala said: “The Prime Minister had described the welfare schemes as the rewadis (freebies) thus insulting the beneficiaries. Providing welfare schemes is the constitutional duty and responsibility of every government and it should not be called revadis.”

Party sources said that the Congress will also fulfill its fourth guarantee of providing 200 units of electricity in the month of August.