BENGALURU: The State Government on Wednesday started the registration process for the Gruha Lakshmi scheme to provide financial assistance of Rs 2,000 to women heads of households.
The scheme will benefit 1.28 crore families and it is the biggest programme in the country with an allocation of Rs 30,000 crore, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said after launching the registration process. Gruha Lakshmi will be implemented from August 16, he said. Women can register at BengaluruOne, GramaOne and, other centres, and also officials appointed by the State Government will visit the houses to help women register.
This was the fourth guarantee scheme announced by the Congress in the run-up to the polls. The CM said the 5th guarantee of providing financial assistance of Rs 3,000 to unemployed graduates and Rs 2,000 to diploma holders will also be implemented.
He said Congress is committed to the social and economic empowerment of women and providing reservations for women in local bodies. “I support reservation for women in the Assembly and Parliament. Let the BJP government do it, we will fully support it. The Women’s Reservation Bill has been pending since 1996. Why are they not doing it,” he asked.
He accused BJP of spreading wrong information about guarantee schemes of the Congress government. He said that in the run-up to the May 10 elections, they had announced five guarantees and it was a challenge to implement them. Many had even commented that it was difficult to implement and even Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said the state would go bankrupt if all the five schemes were implemented, he said. “But we have implemented the schemes,” he added.