Officials told to ensure no eligible beneficiary misses out on guarantee schemes

Mysuru, July 21: The district-level implementation authority for the state government's guarantee schemes has directed officials to ensure that all eligible beneficiaries are enrolled without delay. Arun Kumar, district president of the Guarantee Schemes Implementation Authority, said on Tuesday that no eligible person should be excluded from the benefits.

Presiding over a review meeting at the Mysuru Zilla Panchayat, Mr. Kumar instructed officials to identify and remove deceased beneficiaries from the rolls while ensuring that all eligible citizens continue to receive the schemes' benefits.

Reviewing the Gruha Jyothi scheme, which provides free electricity up to a certain consumption, he said the ongoing beneficiary update exercise must be completed without excluding eligible consumers. He directed officials of the Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation (CESC) to ensure that meter readers conduct door-to-door visits to update beneficiary details and documentation.

Under the Shakti scheme, which offers free bus travel for women, Mr. Kumar noted that women are availing the facility without major issues. However, he directed Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) officials to improve services by ensuring buses stop at designated stops, constructing a bus bay near Ilavala Police Station, increasing bus frequency in crowded areas, and operating additional buses during school and college hours.

He also instructed officials to prevent irregularities in the Public Distribution System by ensuring accurate weight and quality of ration supplies. The Department of Skill Development and Livelihood has been asked to organise awareness programmes in colleges to encourage fresh registrations under the Yuva Nidhi scheme, which provides unemployment allowance to graduates and diploma holders.

Shivakumar, vice-president of the authority, stressed the need to install transformers away from crowded areas and build protective fencing around them. He also directed KSRTC to sensitise drivers and conductors on behaving courteously with passengers.

Expressing concern over payments made under the Gruha Lakshmi scheme — which provides financial assistance to women heads of households — to deceased beneficiaries, he instructed officials to prevent such instances in the future. He also ordered recovery of any payments credited after a beneficiary's death from the respective families for remittance to the government.

CESC engineer Sunil Kumar informed the meeting that Mysuru district has 9,81,299 eligible electricity consumers, of whom 9,73,321 have been enrolled under the Gruha Jyothi scheme, leaving 7,978 consumers yet to register. He said meter readers are updating beneficiary details through house-to-house visits. The district has 50,985 transformers, he added.

Nagaraju, Deputy Director of the Women and Child Development Department, said 34 instalments have been released under the Gruha Lakshmi scheme so far, with payments cleared up till the end of May. He said 5,505 deceased beneficiaries in the district had received payments, and steps are being taken to recover the amount from their families.

KSRTC Divisional Controller Veeresh reported that 29 road accidents involving KSRTC buses occurred in the district, of which 22 were attributed to driver negligence. The accidents claimed seven lives. Counselling has been provided to the responsible drivers, and the number of night-time accidents has declined, he said.

Mysuru Zilla Panchayat CEO S. Yukesh Kumar and officials from various departments attended the meeting.