2 weeks Ago By Vincent D’ Souza
MANGALURU: Talking to mediapersons after holding a Dakshina Kannada district level review meeting, Pushpa Amarnath said beneficiaries of guarantee schemes who want to give up the benefits will be given the option to do so. "Some may think that they do not deserve these benefits and may want to give it up in the interest of the needy. We will give them the option," said Amarnath.
She added that the suggestion will be proposed during the panel's meeting with chief minister Siddaramaih next week. Many eligible persons who do not pay income tax are not able to get the benefit of Gruhalakshmi because they are filing their IT Returns, stated Amarnath. She said the state government will take up the issue with IT department and request it to come with a SoP and issue NoC for such people.
She said commercial tax department is issuing NoC to eligible people despite them having GST registration. Since a significant number of eligible woman have not applied for Gruhalakshmi scheme, she said target will be set for the officials to enrol as many eligible persons as possible. "Initially, we had set a target on the basis of ration cards.
As per that, many have not applied, may be due to reasons like lack of information, inability to physically approach the officials and due to other reasons. Now, the officials will go door to door and enrol them if they want," said Amarnath. She said all these days they did not concentrate on people who have still not applied for these benefits and now they will do it to ensure that the purpose is met.
In Dakshina Kannada, 3.69 lakh beneficiaries are availing Gruhalakshmi scheme against the target of 4.03 lakh.
As many as 33,893 women heads of families have not applied for it although they are eligible for it. Amarnath said the committee will soon come up with guidelines for the proper implementation of the five guarantee schemes and will also hold a training for the office-bearers of the district and taluk level panels overseeing it's implementation. Stating that there is a huge demand to operate more KSRTC buses in Dakshina Kannada where private players have monopoly in public transport, Amarnath said she will talk to transport minister B Ramalinga Reddy on introducing more buses in the region.
KSRTC officials said the department requires an additional 170 buses and 900 staff to meet the demand that has arisen after the introduction of Shakti scheme..
