• In Mysuru District, 13,000 Gruha Lakshmi Scheme beneficiaries are ineligible and among them, 8,000 are dead
• 5,000 women were earning in lakhs and paying GST
• Govt. recovers Rs. 60 lakh from dead beneficiaries’ accounts

By Bapu Lingaraj Urs

Mysuru: In a startling revelation, a total of 13,000 beneficiaries among the 6.99 lakh (6,99,666) beneficiaries of the State Government’s ambitious ‘Gruha Lakshmi’ scheme in Mysuru district are ineligible.

Moreover, 8,000 beneficiaries among them have died, yet they continued to be listed as earning members of the beneficiary families, resulting in a loss of crores of rupees to the State exchequer.

The Congress Government, which came to power in May 2023 on the back of its five guarantees, including the ‘Gruha Lakshmi’ scheme, officially launched the scheme across the State from Mysuru in August 2023 by organising a mega convention at Maharaja’s College Ground.

Under the scheme, women in every household are eligible for a monthly financial assistance of Rs. 2,000. Beneficiaries were enrolled under the scheme by linking their names with ration cards, Aadhaar cards and bank accounts to ensure that only genuine beneficiaries received the benefit.

Accordingly, in Mysuru district alone, 6,99,666 beneficiaries had enrolled under the scheme, and the State Government was providing over Rs. 134 crore annually to pay them. The amount of Rs. 2,000 was credited to the bank accounts of beneficiaries through the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) method, and Rs. 402 crore had been credited over three years.

Review of beneficiaries

Deputy Director of the Women and Child Development Department, Mysuru, Nagaraju, told Star of Mysore that a comprehensive review of beneficiaries was conducted to identify ineligible beneficiaries.

Of these, 8,000 were confirmed to be deceased. As the amount had been credited to their bank accounts, about Rs. 60 lakh was recovered through banks and transferred back to the Government.

After the Government came to know that deceased beneficiaries, Goods and Services Tax (GST) payers and fake beneficiaries were receiving the assistance, Deputy Directors of all districts were instructed to identify ineligible beneficiaries. Following a two-level scrutiny process, a total of 13,000 beneficiaries were found to be ineligible.

Apart from Mysuru, the number of deceased beneficiaries in neighbouring districts was also significant. Chamarajanagar reported 4,739 deceased beneficiaries, Kodagu 2,193, Mandya 9,168 and Hassan 8,033.

Biometric data

To prevent recurrence of irregularities in the implementation of the scheme, it has now been made mandatory to collect biometric details of every beneficiary.

In a humane gesture, the State Government is considering extending ‘Gruha Lakshmi’ benefit to either the daughter-in-law or daughter if the mother-in-law or mother in a family dies. The Death Certificate of deceased beneficiary must be submitted to authorities.