PANAJI: Announcing its first election promise, Trinamool Congress said on Saturday that if it wins the 2022 assembly elections, it will rollout a universal income support scheme to guarantee Rs 5,000 to every woman head of a household in the state.
The party’s Lok Sabha MP
Mahua Moitra said that the scheme will benefit nearly 3.51 lakh households in the state.
Moitra, who has been appointed as the Goa incharge, said that the existing Griha Aadhaar scheme of the BJP-led government is insufficient to meet the rising costs of basic necessities.
If the people give us their blessing to form the government in Goa, we will launch a new scheme—Griha Laxmi—to provide an assured monthly income to every household. Under this scheme, a direct transfer of Rs 5,000 per month will be made,” she said.
Moitra said
Griha Laxmi
will provide universal coverage instead of the current scheme which has a cut-off card, but will remain a direct cash transfer scheme. She said that every family will receive an envelope which will have a Griha Laxmi card, similar to a debit card with an online registration facility.
TMC functionary and former
Tivim
MLA Kiran Kandolkar said that the cost of all items have increased and people cannot afford to meet existing expenses. “We will deliver the cards to people’s homes and there will be no need to stand in-line to register or renew the cards,” Kandolkar said. “Studies have shown that if a woman gets Rs 5,000 as cash in her hand, she will go and buy clothes for the children and food for the family which means that the money gets into the system faster,”
Moitra
said.
TMC is making a strong pitch in Goa as it looks to dethrone Congress and BJP.
Bengal chief minister and TMC chairperson Mamata Banerjee has already rolled out a similar scheme in Bengal — Lakshmi Bhandar.“I am delighted to announce the Griha Laxmi Card, our solemn promise to financially empower the women of every Goan household,” Banerjee tweeted.
TMC said that the existing Griha Aadhaar scheme suffers from inadequate budgetary allocation and operational inadequacies with just Rs 140-170 crore spent against the Rs 270 crore required. “Some would question if Goa has the resources to support an ambitious scheme like Griha Laxmi, which would require roughly Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000 crore per year,” Moitra said. “We will run a government that will put the interests of the people of Goa at the core of governance.”