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Cong may offer 10gm of gold, ₹1L to women for marriage in Telangana
The Telangana Congress manifesto committee chairman D Sridhar Babu said the annual expenditure of this account would be about ₹250 crore
Hyderabad:The Congress is likely to offer 10 grams of gold and ₹1 lakh to women from economically and socially weaker sections of the society in poll-bound Telangana at the time of their marriage as part of its proposed Mahalakshmi scheme, party’s manifesto committee chairman D Sridhar Babu has said.
“We have decided to append the Mahalakshmi scheme guarantee, offering women ₹1 lakh for their wedding and 10 grams of gold because we recognise the emotional attachment that the metal has in an Indian household,” Babu said, adding that the annual expenditure of this account would be about ₹250 crore. The ruling BRS is presently giving ₹1.16 lakh for the marriage of economically weaker women under the Kalyana Lakshmi-Shaadi Mubarak scheme.
Reacting to the Congress’s announcement, president of advocacy group Telangana Women’s Activists Association, Sujatha Polepalli, said, “The promise does not mean empowerment and the money and gold will induce parents to marry off girls earlier than planned...”
“We have already seen so many cases of girls’ Aadhaar cards being modified by the parents to present them as adults and claim all the benefits on the pretext of marrying them off,” Polepalli said. “Upon checking with the community leaders and police, we realised these were all fake marriages.”
The Congress has already announced six poll guarantees on September 18.
The party said the Mahalakshmi scheme will provide financial assistance of ₹2,500 a month to women, offer LPG domestic gas cylinder refills for ₹500 and ensure free travel for women in state road transport corporation buses.
HT reached out to the BRS for a response but did not get one immediately.
Other promises would include review of current liquor policy, reducing the number of vends by revoking licences, and ring roads around every big town and city.
