Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao has directed the officials to issue guidelines for the implementation of Kalayana Lakshmi/Shaadi Mubarak scheme for extending the benefit to girls belonging to Backward Classes and economically weaker sections.
The Chief Minister issued these directions while reviewing the implementation of the scheme at his camp office on Thursday. He said steps should be taken to ensure that the amount is handed over to the parents before the marriage. He said cheque could be given to bride's mother. He said extreme transparency should be maintained in the implementation of the programme.
KCR said that no State in the country provides financial assistance to poor girls at the time of their marriage. However, Telangana Government has created a record by launching this scheme.
The Kalyana Scheme was launched on 24th September 2014 and so far 44,351 SC girls, 25,793 ST girls and 33,913 minority girls have been provided Rs. 51,000 at the time of their marriages.
Cumulatively, a total of 104,057 poor girls have been provided Rs. 530 crore at time of their marriages. The Chief Minister said during the current financial year 2016-17, as amount of Rs. 150 crore has been earmarked for minorities, Rs. 200 crore for SCs, Rs. 88 crore for STs, Rs. 300 crore for BC. He said that the scheme would eradicate several difficulties that occur during the marriages of poor girls. Further, this would also eliminate child marriages.