Bengaluru, Jul 19 (IANS): The Congress on Wednesday said that it will be launching the party's Griha Lakshmi scheme, which was announced in the run up to the assembly elections earlier this year, in Karnataka to transfer Rs 2,000 each to 1.11 crore women head of families.
Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters here, Karnataka Congress in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala said, "Today we are happy to announce that one of the guarantees that we promised in run up to assembly elections will be fulfilled, which is very dear to CPP chairperson Sonia Gandhi."
He said, the Congress government of Karnataka will launch the world's biggest Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) Scheme of Griha Lakshmi for women.
He said that Rs 1.35 lakh crore will be put in the bank accounts of women heads of family. The registration for the scheme will start from Wednesday at 5 p.m. from the Vidhan Souda.
Surjewala said that registration will be done at 7,000 Bapuji Seva Kendra in rural Karnataka and Karnataka 1 or Bengaluru 1 in urban areas. "If any women are unable to reach to the centre, the workers will assist them for registering in the scheme."
Surjewala, who is also a Congress general secretary said that before the assembly election, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi had said that they will fight against inflation and promised the guarantee under Griha Lakshmi.
The money will be transferred in the account from August 15 to 20, he said.
He added that in run up to the elections, the party connected with women and they highlighted how inflation, price of LPG cylinders have affected their budgets. Party leaders Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar and party workers took up the issue in the state and the people voted for the Congress.
The Congress leader said that under the Griha Lakshmi scheme, the party has prepared a budget of Rs 18,000 crore for 1.11 crore women of the state.
He said that next year the number of beneficiary will go up to 1.3 crore, and the party has readied Rs 30,000 crore for the DBT scheme.
Surjewala also said that there are 1.28 crore women head ration card holders in the state and many more families can register for the scheme.