KOPPAL: The State Government’s move to withdraw Bhagyalakshmi Bonds from Below Poverty Line (BPL) families, who now have three children, seems to have put scores of beneficiaries in a fix. The government issued an order recently in this regard. The Bhagyalakshmi scheme, aimed at ensuring Rs 1 lakh to a girl child after attaining 18 years of age, was introduced in 2005-06 with a cap of just two children in a beneficiary elow Poverty Line family.
However, the government initiated a door-to-door survey through anganwadi workers under the Women and Child Development Department to withdraw Bhagyalakshmi Bonds issued between 2006 and 2014 from those BPL families which have three children at present, official sources said.
Bhagyalakshmi Bonds, issued in 2005-06 are supposed to mature in 2023-24, but many of beneficiary BPL families now have three children. In fact, the government’s move is facing resistance from beneficiaries as anganwadi workers were pulled up while taking back the bonds, especially in Kukanoor taluk of Koppal district. There are scores of such families across the state. Koppal district alone has over 50,000 such families, sources pointed out.
As objections were raised during an audit of the scheme at the state-level, the government has initiated a move to withdraw the bonds issued to BPL families with three or more children, said an official in the department.
However, department Deputy Director Akkamahadevi told The New Indian Express that the cap on two children existed when the Bhagyalaxmi Bonds were issued and the BPL families were informed about it. If a beneficiary elow Poverty Line family continues to have two children, the scheme’s benefit will be ensured, she noted. Meanwhile, elow Poverty Line families have demanded that the
government order in this regard be withdrawn.