Gruha Lakshmi dole yet to reach benificiaries for last two months; Tepid response to Yuva Nidhi

BENGALURU: The Karnataka government’s Gruha Lakshmi scheme, aimed at providing financial assistance to women heads of families, continues to face delays in disbursal of funds. Despite the government’s claims of releasing funds, beneficiaries are yet to receive the money.

A fortnight days have passed in December, and the government has not released the money for October and November. Earlier, Women and Child Development minister Laxmi Hebbalkar said that the money will be released in 3-4 days, but even after 15 days, the beneficiaries are ye to receive the dole.

Minister Laxmi Hebbalkar herself admitted in the House that the money has not been released for two months. She was responding to a question from BJP member Hemalatha Nayak in the Legislative Council and that 1,26,24,547 beneficiaries have registered for the scheme as of October-end.

The scheme has been in operation for 14 months, with a total expenditure of Rs 16,960 crore in 2023-24 and Rs 15,791 crore in 2024-25. The government claims to have released funds for September, but the funds for October and November are yet to be credited. The government has initiated the process of preparing bills for the payment of financial assistance for October, and steps are being taken to pay the November due, the minister said.

Apart from this, even the Yuva Nidhi scheme is also seeing lukewarm response due to different reasons. The scheme was launched to provide financial assistance to the unemployed graduates and diploma holders of the state, but has been getting poor response from youngsters in Bengaluru.

Despite being home to the largest number of graduates in the state, only 10 per cent of them in Bengaluru have registered for the scheme. Out of the two lakh graduates in Bengaluru, only 20,000 have registered for the Yuva Nidhi scheme.

To boost registration, the district administration has instructed colleges and universities to upload students’ academic records onto the National Academic Depository (NAD) portal. Additionally, helpdesks and official websites will be set up in colleges and universities to promote the scheme.