Gruha Lakshmi, the State government’s ambitious scheme of cash incentives to poor women, has seen over 86 lakh registrations.
As of Monday evening, 86,59,467 women have applied for the scheme. In the earlier days, registration was around four-five lakh per day. Now, it has slowed down to around three-four lakh per day, officials say.
The reason, other than technical glitches and power cuts, is the mandate to get the application uploaded either by government agencies like gram panchayats or municipal corporations or by government approved agents.
The most common problem is that of power cuts, especially in the villages. Server overload is another issue that has been bothering residents of villages and towns.
Minister for Women and Child Welfare Lakshmi Hebbalkar has promised that the scheme will not suffer from server overload as the government is putting in place a very strong technical system that will act as the electronic backbone of the system.
She earlier reasoned that the launch of the scheme was delayed due to the time needed for the background preparations. However, the problems persist.
The second issue is the need for human intervention in the registration process. Though the application can be filled online or offline, the applicant has to go to one of the citizens service centres or government or private uploading centres in the villages or towns.
Applications filed on the website or mobile application need to be verified by the uploading agency. All applicants are given a date to come back to the office and complete the uploading process.
This is taking a lot of time and causing confusion, say aspiring beneficiaries.
“Last Monday, I went to the DharwadOne common service centre in the morning at around 6.30 to queue up. But I did not get a chance to apply even after waiting for six hours. Officers told me that women who had applied last Wednesday were getting a chance to upload their documents. They asked me to come back. Now, I need to go to the office twice. It will not be easy for me as I have to close my shop and stand in queue for two whole days,’‘ said Sharada Basavapattan who runs a petty shop in Dharwad.
She said that the government should have made it automatic as was done with the Gruha Jyoti scheme.
However, complaints of corruption by agents who help applicants register their names continue despite a crackdown by officials against such agents.
Sakinabi Azam of Peeranwadi said that she could apply for the scheme only after paying a bribe of ₹200 to an agent.
The GramOne operators on the other hand argue that the processing commission of ₹20 they are getting per applicant is low. They have submitted a memorandum to the government asking it to increase the commission to ₹100 per application.
Ms. Hebbalkar said that the government is taking all measures to rectify the situation. “We have asked district and taluk level officers to act ruthlessly against those engaged in corruption, irrespective of whether they are government employees or agents.”
“The government has repeatedly cautioned them against such practices. Permission to 10 agencies has been cancelled following complaints of corruption,” she said.
“The State government has already spent around ₹9 crore towards information and awareness campaigns for the scheme. It will be increased, if needed. We have made the process verifiable to avoid irregularities and fake applications,” the Minister said.
