MANGALURU: In a major exercise to plug leakages in its flagship Gruhalakshmi scheme, the Karnataka government will soon launch a door-to-door re-verification of beneficiaries across the state after payments worth Rs 177 crore were found to have been credited to the bank accounts of deceased beneficiaries.
The move comes soon after the government initiated a similar re-verification drive for the Gruhajyoti scheme and is aimed at identifying ineligible beneficiaries while ensuring that benefits reach only eligible households.
Karnataka State Guarantee Implementation Authority Chairman H.M. Revanna told mediapersons that six-member committees would be constituted at the gram panchayat and ward levels to assist government officials in the verification process. A government order for the exercise was issued on August 31 following discussions with Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, he said.
Each committee will comprise Congress party workers, including two women and representatives from the Scheduled Castes, minorities, backward classes and the general category. Revanna said the committees would not entail any financial burden on the government and would only facilitate the verification process.
He said the government had identified payments totalling Rs 177 crore that continued to be credited to Gruhalakshmi beneficiaries even after their deaths before the loophole was plugged. Of this amount, around Rs 30 crore has been recovered so far, while efforts are underway to recover the remaining funds.
According to Revanna, mechanisms have already been put in place to automatically stop payments upon the death of a beneficiary. The government is also examining the introduction of biometric authentication and other safeguards to prevent similar lapses in future.
Revanna said the government was considering reducing the monthly rice entitlement under PDS by 5 kg and instead supplying an Indira Kit containing essential commodities such as edible oil, sugar and pulses. The proposal, he said, is intended to curb the diversion of subsidised rice into the black market.
