Mysuru: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said that the party has honoured key pre-poll promises made to the people in Karnataka and said that work carried out by the Siddaramaiah-led government would be replicated across the country.
Seeking to fulfill another key pre-poll promise, the Congress government in Karnataka on Wednesday launched the ‘Gruha Lakshmi’ scheme offering a monthly assistance of Rs 2,000 to about 1.1 crore women who are heads of their households.
AICC President M Mallikarjun Kharge, who launched the scheme, was present along with party MP Rahul Gandhi, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy D K Shivakumar at the public function held on Maharaja College grounds and attended by tens of thousands of people.
“We have kept our word on promises,” Gandhi said, speaking at the event. “We never make false promises” “The work we have done in Karnataka will be replicated across India,” the former AICC President said.
The ‘Gruha Lakshmi’ scheme, rolled out amid fanfare, is one of the five pre-poll ‘guarantees’ of the Congress, which ousted the BJP from power in the May Assembly elections.
“The five guarantees of the Congress are not just schemes; they are a governance model,” Gandhi said.
He also termed the ‘Gruha Lakshmi’ scheme as “the world’s largest cash transfer scheme” whereby Rs 2,000 will be transferred directly into the bank accounts of the millions of women beneficiaries.
The Congress had made a poll promise to implement five ‘guarantees’, namely ‘Shakti’, ‘Gruha Jyothi’, ‘Annabhagya’, ‘Gruha Lakshmi’ and ‘Yuva Nidhi’ Gandhi said Shakti offers free travel for women in government buses anywhere in Karnataka, while ‘Gruha Jyoti’ provides 200 units of electricity free of cost per month.
The ‘Anna Bhagya’ scheme offers 10 kg rice while ‘Yuva Nidhi’ (Youth Fund) promises to give Rs 3,000 and Rs 1,500 a month to unemployed graduates and diploma holders, respectively, who fail to get a job even after six months of clearing their exams in the 2022-23 academic year.
“Barring the ‘Yuva Nidhi’ scheme, the four guarantees (Shakti, Gruha Lakshmi, Gruha Jyothi and Anna Bhagya) are meant for women of the state. There is a deep thinking behind these four guarantees,” Gandhi explained.
Comparing Karnataka women with the roots of a tree, the Congress MP said if the roots are strong, the tree can withstand any storm.
Gandhi said that while walking the 600-km stretch in Karnataka during his ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ last year, he realised the women were peeved at the price rise in the country.
The challenges faced by women inspired the Congress to launch these guarantees, he added.
Taking a dig at the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre, he said there is a “fashion” these days that the “government in Delhi” only works for billionaires.
“Our thinking is that government should work for the welfare of poor people,” he said.
Kharge said no government in India has ever launched such a scheme and everyone is keen to implement it in their state.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had said earlier that 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.
The government has earmarked Rs 17,500 crore for the ‘Gruha Lakshmi’ programme in the current financial year, he had added.
The ‘Yuva Nidhi’ scheme would be implemented in December or January, the CM said in his address at the function today.
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