Karnataka Women and Child Development Minister Laxmi Hebbalkar announced that payments for the beneficiaries of the Gruha Lakshmi guarantee scheme began from Tuesday, August 6. This scheme, which provides Rs 2,000 to women heads of economically weaker families, was a key pledge by the Congress party during the 2023 Karnataka Assembly elections and was inaugurated on August 30, 2023, in Mysuru.
During a public gathering in Mandya, amidst the Congress' protest against the BJP-JD(S) march regarding the MUDA alternative site scam, Hebbalkar acknowledged complaints from some women to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah about not receiving payments for the past two months. She explained, "Due to a technical glitch, we couldn't transfer money into the bank accounts of women for June and July. It will be resolved starting today.”.
Eligible and registered women in the state had not received the Rs 2,000 financial assistance for June and July under the state government's Gruhalakshmi scheme. As reported by Deccan Herald, the delay was due to budgetary issues for those two months. "There has been a delay in securing the budget for June and July. We have sent a request and are waiting for the funds," state-level officials from the Department of Women and Child Development (DWCD), who oversee the scheme, told Deccan Herald.
During the launch of the scheme, the Karnataka government said that over a crore women from more than 55,000 panchayats within the state had enrolled for the Gruha Lakshmi scheme.