Guarantees: Fix problems for beneficiaries by December, says CM Siddaramaiah

Siddaramaiah held back-to-back meetings to take stock of the four guarantees promised by the Congress during the Karnataka Assembly elections.

Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday directed authorities to set right glitches in the implementation of the flagship Gruha Lakshmi scheme and ensure all eligible women receive payments by December.

Siddaramaiah held back-to-back meetings to take stock of the four guarantees.

Under Gruha Lakshmi, the woman head of the household receives Rs 2,000 per month.

At the meeting, Siddaramaiah was told that 1.17 crore women had registered till date and 1.10 crore of them had received payments. The remaining beneficiaries are not receiving payments due to confusion on their bank account details and Aadhaar linkage.

Siddaramaiah was told that Anganwadi workers are being roped in to take beneficiaries to banks and sort out the problems.

The CM said Gruha Lakshmi adalats must be conducted in every gram panchayat to address problems related to bank accounts and Aadhaar linkage.

On Gruha Jyoti, under which 200 units of power is free, Siddaramaiah noted that 12 lakh Revenue Register (RR) numbers are not enrolled. Under this scheme, 1.62 crore citizens have registered and 1.50 crore households are benefitting. Since August, the government has spent Rs 2,900 crore on free power.

For Anna Bhagya in which every BPL member gets an additional 5 kg rice free, the government has spent Rs 2,444.11 crore so far. Beneficiaries are being given cash in lieu of rice. In October, 1.10 BPL card holders have received money. Around 12.95 lakh beneficiaries have been covered by getting them to link Aadhaar with their bank accounts. Another 2.60 lakh have been made to open new accounts at post offices.

There are 7.67 lakh ineligible ration cards. In most cases, the head of the family is not available at the given address, the CM was informed. In such cases, the second senior member of the family must receive the money. The CM asked authorities to place this proposal before the Cabinet. By December 31, all eligible beneficiaries must get covered, Siddaramaiah said.

100 crore milestone under Shakti

The CM also reviewed the Shakti scheme of free bus travel for women. Up until November 21, a total of 99.75 crore women have availed the benefit in multiple trips. The figure is expected to touch 100 crore in a couple of days, the CM noted.

The monthly number of passengers has risen from 84.17 in April (before Shakti) to 1.08-1.15 crore now, officials told the CM.