Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has come out with another welfare scheme for the Muslim minority. He announced that every poor Muslim girl will be given an assistance of Rs 51,000 for her wedding.
This will be on the line of a similar scheme ‘Kanya lakshmi’ for the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe girls announced by KCR. The Government has also decided to increase the amount of assistance under this scheme to Rs 51,000.
“The decision to increase the amount to Rs 51,000 was taken by the Chief Minister as he felt four zeros in such a gift will not be auspicious,” an official said. KCR announcing the scheme said that this was completely different from the earlier scheme ‘Mass Marriages of Muslims Girls’ announced in 2008. Under this scheme the Government used to gift household goods worth Rs 15,000 to newly married couple. In 2012 the amount was increased to Rs 25,000.
In view of alleged rampant corruption in the implementation of the scheme and loopholes in scrutiny of applications and irregularities in the purchase of goods, the new Government decided to change the entire scheme.
The Chief Minister said that instead of household goods, the Government will deposit an amount of Rs 51,000 in the bank account of the girl. The scheme was yet to be named but officials were confident that the changes would ensure that the scheme was corruption free and deserving families will benefit from it.