BENGALURU: MLC and vice-president of the Karnataka guarantees implementation committee Dinesh Gooligowda has written to Chief Minister DK Shivakumar to take steps to recover around Rs 1,000 crore delivered to ineligible beneficiaries annually under the State Government’s ambitious Gruha Lakshmi scheme.
Under the scheme, Rs 2,000 is deposited into the accounts of women heads of every eligible household. Gooligowda suggested using the biometric system to prevent the misuse of the scheme, similar to the Anna Bhagya scheme.
Steps can be taken to prevent payments to 1,95,224 deceased beneficiaries (as of March 2026) of Gruha Lakshmi, amounting to Rs 39.05 crore per month, and Rs 468.54 crore per year, he said.
Similarly, 1,94,560 beneficiaries, who are paying IT/GST, get Rs 38.91 crore per month, amounting to Rs 466.94 crore per year, he stated.
He appealed that the government check ineligibility and instruct the departments concerned to collect complete data on the deceased beneficiaries and direct the banks to withdraw the amount from their accounts.
There are 1,24,00,000 Gruha Lakshmi beneficiaries collecting Rs 2,480 crore per month and Rs 29,760 crore per year.
As of April, 2026, Rs 72,253 crore has been paid, he elaborated.
Gruha Jyoti is benefiting 1.64 crore households, which are getting free electricity up to 200 units per month, amounting to Rs 26,115 crore by April, 2026, he said.
Under Anna Bhagya, Rs 18,897 crore is being spent. Under the Shakti scheme, as on June 10, 2026, 757.62 crore women passengers have received free tickets worth Rs 19,890 crore, he said.
Under the Yuvanidhi scheme, Rs 3,000 and Rs 1,500 each has been paid to unemployed graduates and diploma graduates, amounting to Rs 1,115 crore. Since the implementation of the guarantees from June 2023, the government has spent Rs 1,38,270.21 crore, he informed.
3,89,784 INELIGIBLE BENEFICIARIES
During the revision of the State Government’s Gruha Lakshmi scheme, 3,89,784 ineligible benefic-iaries were identified across the state, and their names were removed from the list, which has saved the government about Rs 77 crore per month, sources told The New Indian Express.
In a review conducted by the Women and Child Development Department, cases of scheme money being deposited in the names of 1,94,560 people paying income tax and GST and 1,95,224 benefic-iaries who had died came to light, sources said.
The revision process was carried out in March, and the list of ineligible benefici-aries was finalised and excluded from the scheme. Accor-ding to government data, the maximum number of 47,871 ineligible benefic-iaries were identified in Bengaluru Urban. Overall, about 3.89 lakh ineligible Gruha Lakshmi beneficiaries have been eliminated from this verification process.