The Karnataka government on Wednesday launched its Gruha Lakshmi scheme that proposes to give Rs 2,000 each month to women heads of families.
Chief Minister Siddararamaiah said that as many as 1.1 crore women will receive the money.
The scheme was launched by Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and party MP Rahul Gandhi at a function in Mysuru.
Gandhi said that Gruha Lakshmi is the world’s largest cash transfer scheme. The Congress will replicate it across the country as the scheme serves as a safety net for women, he added.
The scheme was part of the “five guarantees” that the Congress promised to voters in its election manifesto.
The other four were 200 units of free electricity to all households, 10 kilograms of free rice to all members of families living below the poverty line, free bus travel for women and Rs 3,000 to those unemployed for up to two years after graduation, and Rs 1,500 for unemployed diploma holders.
Of these, only the scheme promising an allowance to youths remains to be implemented.
“Our five schemes in Karnataka are not just schemes, but a governance model,” Gandhi said on Wednesday. “Our thinking is that the government should work for the poor and weak, and no one should be left behind irrespective of religion, caste, or the language they speak.”
Siddararamaiah said that his government would implement the remaining scheme by December or January.
“[Prime Minister] Narendra Modi said in Rajasthan that Karnataka would go bankrupt if we implemented the schemes,” he said, according to The Indian Express. “Today, we have fulfilled four guarantees...But the state government has not gone bankrupt. None of the regular schemes were stopped. We implemented the schemes despite allocating funds to all departments and programs.”
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