BENGALURU: Around 15,000 new beneficiaries are being added to the Gruha Lakshmi scheme every month, said Women and Child Development Minister Laxmi Hebbalkar on Thursday. Under the scheme, the state government gives Rs 2,000 to the women heads of beneficiary households a month. Adding around 15,000 new beneficiaries every month is likely to be a big burden on the government as that would require additional funding for the scheme.
Of the five guarantees, Gruha Lakshmi gets more fund allocation as there are over 1.25 crore registered beneficiaries.
According to sources from the department, Rs 2,540 crore is spent monthly on an average under the scheme. Sources, however, said even through there are additional registrations every month, all of them might not get the benefit as verification will have to be conducted.
The minister said around 10,000 to 15,000 new beneficiaries are being registered under the guarantee. The government has not revised the scheme and there have been no issues with disbursement of the amount, Hebbalkar clarified.
The minister said they have released money till April. Earlier, the department used to disburse money directly, but now it is done through zilla and taluk panchayats, she said.
Hebbalkar noted that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is concerned about the scheme. “As per guidelines from the Union government, money has to be disbursed through zilla and taluk panchayats. This might be causing delay in disbursement,’’ she said.