Rahul Gandhi Says Karnataka Model To Be Replicated Nationwide, Weeks After State Deputy CM Said 'No Funds For Development'

On Wednesday (30 August), Congress leader Rahul Gandhi remarked that the 'development work' done by the current government led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will be replicated across the country.

While patting the party leaders on their backs for implementing the Congress' key poll promises, Gandhi further mentioned that the five guarantees are not just schemes, but "models of governance".

The Gruha Lakshmi scheme which offers a monthly assistance of Rs 2,000 to women, has a beneficiary list of more than 1.1 crore women across the state of Karnataka — to an extent where the party's general secretary K C Venugopal even claimed that the scheme was the 'biggest welfare scheme for women in the world'.

During the launch at Mysuru, where Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge was present too, Rahul Gandhi called the scheme as "the world's largest cash transfer scheme".

This comes amid Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar's admission that no development work can happen for a year or so because a large portion of the revenue is now being used to fund the freebies that the Congress had promised to implement.

Shivakumar, in a candid admission, had acknowledged that the state's Congress government is facing financial constraints this year due to the implementation of the five populist poll guarantees, and as a result, the government would be unable to provide for development at this time.

Apart from Kharge and Gandhi, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar and other ministers of the state cabinet were also present at the event held on the Maharaja College grounds in Mysuru.

Speaking at the launch, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that the fifth and the final welfare scheme will be launched by December or January.

The implementation of the Gruha Lakshmi scheme for just a year, is estimated to cost around Rs 17,500 crore.