Karnataka govt set to launch 'Gruha Lakshmi' scheme, Kharge & Rahul Gandhi to attend

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. File photo

The Karnataka government will launch on Wednesday a scheme offering Rs 2,000 monthly financial assistance to more than one crore women who are heads of their households, in the presence of AICC president M Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the district headquarters town of Mysuru, officials said on Monday.

According to officials, about 1.08 crore potential beneficiaries have enrolled for the 'Gruha Lakshmi' scheme, one of the five pre-poll 'guarantees' of the Congress, which ousted the BJP from power in the May Assembly elections.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah told reporters in Mysuru today that about one lakh people would gather at the function, where the scheme would be launched by Kharge, while he would preside over the event and Gandhi would be present.

He said it was a government function and added that Kharge and Gandhi would attend the event in their capacity as Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, and as member of the Parliament, respectively. "It's not a party function".

The chief minister said the government has already implemented three of the five 'guarantees' (pre-poll promises) -- 'Shakti', 'Gruha Jyothi' and 'Annabhagya' -- and noted that 'Gruha Lakshmi' is the fourth one.

Siddaramaiah said last week that the government would directly transfer Rs 2,000 a month to the bank accounts of the enrolled 1.08 crore women.

The government has earmarked Rs 17,500 crore for the 'Gruha Lakshmi' programme in the current financial year, he had said.

Also read: Some parties that attended NDA meet are in touch with I-N-D-I-A bloc; will cross over soon: Congress

Meanwhile, the party Monday criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the alleged lack of employment opportunities, saying he is holding Rozgar Melas as he is feeling the "heat of an election year" and to save his image.

Addressing a Rozgar Mela this morning, Modi distributed over 51,000 appointment letters to the youth, mostly in the security forces.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh termed the Rozgar Melas as the "biggest jumlas"(rhetoric) and said the prime minister has "failed" to fulfil his promise of creating two crore jobs per year.

"After destroying the MSME sector with demonetisation, a badly designed GST and an ill-planned sudden lockdown. After betraying the hope of aspirational youth for more than 9 years, the Prime Minister is feeling the heat in an election year.To save his flailing image, he has come up with one of the biggest jumlas" the PM Rozgar Mela," he said on X.

Ramesh claimed that the "jobs are already sanctioned posts that have not been filled up for years due to some administrative or financial reason. In a very large number of instances appointment letters are being handed out by the PM even in cases of promotion".

"The Mela personalises employment in the government sector as if the PM is singularly responsible for mostly routine job offers," he said.

Noting that job creation comes from economic growth that is driven by investments, the Congress leader charged, "The PM Rozgar Mela is a gimmick and is yet another proof of a gigantic ego, enormous vanity, the unbounded self-obsession and the refusal to accept responsibility for the dire unemployment situation." (Agencies)