‘Fulfilled our promise’, says Rahul Gandhi at launch of Gruha Lakshmi scheme

MYSURU: The Congress government in the state on Wednesday rolled out the ‘Gruha Lakshmi’ scheme, one among five poll promises made by the Congress during its election campaign. Under the scheme, the state government will provide Rs 2,000 monthly assistance to the woman head of BPL families.

With this, the Congress government has rolled out four of its five guarantees. The scheme was launched in the presence of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former president Rahul Gandhi. At the launch event in Mysuru, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi said that today, crores of women had received Rs 2,000 directly into their bank accounts.

“Before the elections, the Congress party had made five promises to the people of Karnataka. We had said that when Congress party and its leaders say something, they do it. Today, when we click on the tablet, crores of women receive Rs 2,000 directly into their bank accounts”, Rahul Gandhi said.

“Like today, crores of women will be getting Rs 2,000 every month in their bank accounts through direct transfer method. We had told you that after elections women in Karnataka will not have to make any payment for travelling on buses. The scheme was called ‘Shakti’ and we fulfilled it”, Rahul Gandhi said.

Drawing attention to Karnataka’s five poll promises, Rahul Gandhi said out of the five, four schemes were formed for women. “There is a deep idea behind this”, he stressed.

AICC chief Mallikarjuna Kharge launched Gruha Lakshmi Yojana. Addressing the gathering, he said the government, led by Siddaramaiah, is sticking to its words. “PM Modi and Amit Shah said it was a bogus announcement when we announced it. Modi will never accept what someone else has done. He should have appreciated the implementation of the guarantees”, the Congress president said.

“The Congress government had built airports and the railway stations. Now Modi is taking credit by making some changes. The list of contributions of Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi to this nation is huge. People should stop talking about Congress”, Kharge said.

Further, he said, “Rahul Gandhi has never been afraid of anyone. The only job for the BJP is to blame the Congress party. Let’s stop them first. The Constitution must be protected to improve the lives of poor, Dalit, and backward classes. The BJP always claims that Congress is ruining that the country, but it is the BJP which has ruined this country. People should kick out the fascist BJP government”, Kharge added.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said, “No government in the past has fulfilled the promises in 100 days. Our government has acted as promised. The BJP and JDS leaders were saying that it was not possible to fulfill the five guarantees. The Prime Minister himself said that these schemes would bankrupt the state. We have implemented the guarantees while allotting money to all other schemes. The state has not been left bankrupt as we have maintained fiscal discipline. Whatever the Opposition parties have said is false. The work we have done is right in front of you”.

Deputy CM Shivakumar said the winds of change are blowing across the country. “There are 1.10 crore beneficiaries of the Gruha Lakshmi scheme. The Bharat Jodo Yatra was held in the state for 510 km and Rahul Gandhi saw the hunger and poverty of the people of this state. Hence, he had told me to devise plans to alleviate poverty and hunger. Now we have executed the plan”.

“We have implemented four guarantee schemes in 100 days. Karnataka stands out in the whole country as a model state. No such programme like ‘Gruha Lakshmi’ has been implemented in any state”, he added.

According to Congress general secretary KC Venugopal, the Gruha Lakshmi scheme will be the “world’s largest-ever welfare scheme for women” with 1.28 crore women heads of families in Karnataka expected to receive financial aid deposited directly into their bank accounts.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday said that his government has the political will to implement the five guarantees that were promised to the people in the state by Congress. The CM had said that the five schemes will cost the state exchequer approximately Rs 50,000 crore every year.

During its poll campaign in Karnataka earlier this year, the Congress had announced the five main guarantees to the people of Karnataka. These included 200 units of free power to all households (Gruha Jyoti); Rs 2,000 monthly assistance to the woman head of every family (Gruha Lakshmi); 10 kg of rice free to every member of a BPL household (Anna Bhagya); Rs 3,000 every month for unemployed graduate youth and Rs 1,500 for unemployed diploma holders (both in the age group of 18-25) for two years (Yuva Nidhi) and free travel for women in public transport buses (Shakti Uchita Prayana). (With Agency inputs)