New criteria comes to force for claiming benefits from govt schemes

Bangalore, May 3 (UNI) Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa today said that Bhagyalaxmi scheme, to provide funds to girl child, was in final stages and will be implemented soon based on a new criteria of family income.

Speaking to mediapersons here he said that this step would help put to an end the misuse of BPL cards for availing the benefits from the government schemes.

He said that the scheme would be now based on the annual income of Rs 20,000 or less and not based on BPL cards. The government would deposit a sum of Rs 10,000 in the name of two girl children in such families and the maturity amount would be paid to them after they attained an age of 18 years, he said.

The scheme also covers an annual education scholarship of Rs 100 from first standard to Rs 1000 to tenth progressively, for the two girls and the scholarship for 11th and 12th standard would be linked to a LIC scheme. The scheme would also carry an insurance cover of Rs One lakh for parents and Rs 25,000 for children, he said.

From the fixed deposit, first child would get Rs 34,700 and second child Rs 40,918 at the age of 18 years, he said.

Mr Yediyurappa said that the government had planned to set up a separate directorate for handling matters related to social securities and pension within a month.

UNI