Bengaluru: The Karnataka govt is likely to make life certificates mandatory to avail benefits under Gruha Lakshmi — Rs 2,000 is given out every month to women heads of poor families under the flagship guarantee scheme — with handouts still going into accounts of nearly 1.5 lakh (or 1.2%) of registered beneficiaries who are now dead.After CM Siddaramaiah recently wrote to chief secretary Shalini Rajneesh, senior officials have started consultations to introduce a clause for the Gruha Lakshmi beneficiaries to submit ‘life certificate’ periodically.Pensioners have to similarly submit life certificates every year to continue to get the monthly pension. The state govt’s plan is to ensure the cash transfer is limited to eligible beneficiaries who are alive. As many as 1.2 crore beneficiaries have registered for Gurha Lakshmi ever since the scheme was implemented in June 2023. Officials said more two lakh of them are dead and added that a proper audit was awaited.Guarantee Schemes Implementation Committee vice-chairman Dinesh Gooligowda said benefits are being transferred to accounts of nearly 1.5 lakh deceased beneficiaries. “Under the scheme, benefits will go to the next senior-most woman member if the beneficiary dies. There are instances wherein the family members have not reported the death of beneficiary and the money transferred to such accounts lies unclaimed. In some cases, family members draw money through UPI,” said Gooligowda.Shalini Rajneesh said technology is being leveraged for automatic elimination of dead beneficiaries. “The e-Janma portal has been linked with Gruha Lakshmi so that the scheme benefits get suspended once a death is reported,” she said.“It is impractical to expect an automatic reporting mechanism. One solution is periodic surveys at the local level to weed out ineligible beneficiaries instead of seeking life certificates from the beneficiaries,” said economist BDA Satya Babu Bose. Gooligowda said they were seeking a foolproof mechanism to ensure public funds were not unutilised.GFXGuarantee fund flow Total money govt spent on five guarantees so far: Rs 1.1 lakh croreNo of Gurha Lakshmi beneficiaries : 1.2 croreMonthly release for Gruha Lakshmi: Rs 2,500 croreNo of instalments paid so far: 25Money spent on Gruha Lakshi so far : Rs 57K croreNo bank accounts of dead beneficiaries found : 1.5 lakh(Source: GoK)
