BENGALURU: In all, Rs 20,632 crore has been so far spent on the five guarantee schemes in Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) limits, according to GBA Guarantee Schemes Implementation Committee chairman G Krishnappa.
Disclosing this to reporters here on Wednesday, he said GBA will soon launch a door-to-door re-verification of beneficiaries under the Gruha Lakshmi scheme to weed out ineligible ones and prevent payments being made to the bank accounts of deceased beneficiaries.
Krishnappa said biometric or facial authentication of beneficiaries will be done during re-verification and the exercise is estimated to cost Rs 20 crore. A proposal in this regard is awaiting the cabinet’s nod.
He said GBA proposes to conduct the re-verification exercise using the web application/mobile application software developed by the Directorate of Electronic Delivery of Citizen Services (EDCS) through door-to-door survey and through Grama One, Karnataka One, Bengaluru One and Bapuji Seva Kendras.
Krishnappa said 18,522 Gruha Lakshmi beneficiaries have died in GBA limits and Rs 7.18 crore transferred to their accounts. A sum of Rs 9.22 lakh has been recovered from such accounts.
Among the five guarantees, the highest of Rs 9,625 crore was spent on the Gruha Jyothi scheme, benefitting over 38.91 lakh beneficiaries, followed by Rs 5,309 crore on Gruha Lakshmi, benefitting over 8,95,132 beneficiaries, Rs 3,963 crore on Shakti scheme towards 258.78 crore bus trips and Rs 1,672 crore on Anna Bhagya, benefitting 20,119 beneficiaries.
Across the state, the cumulative expenditure under the five schemes amounted to Rs 1,54,861.58 crore from June 2023.
The committee said BESCOM achieved 99.93% progress in Gruha Jyothi re-verification. Under Anna Bhagya, 1,060 fair price shops in GBA limits cater to 5,48,038 ration card-holders, covering 18,83,817 beneficiaries. Officials have completed 85% of e-KYC and will continue the exercise till November 10. CCTV cameras will be installed in more than 25 godowns storing foodgrains. All fair price shops will have IRIS scanners.
The committee’s helpline has received 193 complaints so far. Of them, 185 have been resolved.