Registration for 'Gruha Lakshmi' scheme commences in Karnataka
Bengaluru, July 19: Registration for 'Gruha Lakshmi' scheme, one of the five poll guarantees of the Congress government in Karnataka, which offers Rs 2,000 aid per month to women head of the family, began on Wednesday.
According to officials, under this scheme Rs 24,000 will be transferred into the bank accounts of about 1.28 crore women head of the family in the state every year and is said to be one of the biggest such programmes in the country.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who launched the registration for the scheme said it would come into effect from August 16.
Noting that Gruha Lakshmi will cost about Rs 35,000 crore to the state exchequer annually, he said, "if there is any security programme in the country that is more than Rs 30,000 crore show me. We have to be proud of it (Gruha Lakshmi scheme)."
"This scheme will provide Rs 2,000 per month to 1.28 crore women head of the family -- this is called universal basic income in some countries," he said. Registration for Gruha Lakshi is free of cost.
Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, Women and Child Welfare Minister Lakshmi Hebbalkar, and Ministers Ramalinga Reddy, K H Muniappa, Dr. H.C. Mahadevappa, were among others present at the event.
Under the scheme, women heads of families, as identified in ration cards (BPL and APL cards), will be eligible for Rs 2,000 financial aid from the government every month, as long as the women or the husbands do not fall under the tax-paying bracket.
According to officials, each ration cardholder, who is the woman head of the family, will be given an appointment to register, through an SMS on her mobile number linked to her Aadhaar card. She will have to visit the venue mentioned at the specified time to register.
In case a beneficiary is unable to visit the centres on the designated date and time, she can visit the same centre on the same day, or any other day, between 5 pm and 7 pm.
In rural areas, registration will be done in the nearest Grama One or Bapuji Seva Kendra. In urban areas, it will be the nearest Karnataka One or Bengaluru One centre.
Beneficiaries have to provide details of ration card number, Aadhaar number and bank account details.
In additional arrangement, a Praja Pratinidhi (citizen volunteer) will visit every household and register beneficiaries.
Among Congress' five poll guarantees, the government has already implemented Shakti' by providing free services for women in public transport buses last month, and payment of cash in lieu of the additional 5 kilograms of rice to beneficiaries under the government's Anna Bhagya' scheme.
While the Gruha Jyothi' scheme to provide 200 units of free electricity to households has already come into effect from the beginning of this month, the electricity bill for the same for power consumption this month will come in the beginning of August.
'Yuva Nidhi' the scheme to provide Rs 3,000 every month for unemployed graduate youth and Rs 1,500 for unemployed diploma holders is likely to be implemented by November or December.
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Israel launches first airstrike on Lebanon since ceasefire, accusing Hezbollah of breaching truce
Beirut, Nov 28: The Israeli military on Thursday said its warplanes fired on southern Lebanon after detecting Hezbollah activity at a rocket storage facility, the first Israeli airstrike a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took hold.
There was no immediate word on casualties from Israel's aerial attack, which came hours after the Israeli military said it fired on people trying to return to certain areas in southern Lebanon. Israel said they were violating the ceasefire agreement, without providing details. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said two people were wounded.
The back-to-back incidents stirred unease about the agreement, brokered by the United States and France, which includes an initial two-month ceasefire in which Hezbollah members are to withdraw north of the Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border. The buffer zone would be patrolled by Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers.
On Thursday, the second day of a ceasefire after more than a year of bloody conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon's state news agency reported that Israeli fire targeted civilians in Markaba, close to the border, without providing further details. Israel said it fired artillery in three other locations near the border. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press reporter in northern Israel near the border heard Israeli drones buzzing overhead and the sound of artillery strikes from the Lebanese side.
The Israeli military said in a statement that “several suspects were identified arriving with vehicles to a number of areas in southern Lebanon, breaching the conditions of the ceasefire.” It said troops “opened fire toward them” and would “actively enforce violations of the ceasefire agreement.”
Israeli officials have said forces will be withdrawn gradually as it ensures that the agreement is being enforced. Israel has warned people not to return to areas where troops are deployed, and says it reserves the right to strike Hezbollah if it violates the terms of the truce.
A Lebanese military official said Lebanese troops would gradually deploy in the south as Israeli troops withdraw. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.
The ceasefire agreement announced late Tuesday ended 14 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that began a day after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza, when the Lebanese Hezbollah group began firing rockets, drones and missiles in solidarity.
Israel retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict steadily intensified for nearly a year before boiling over into all-out war in mid-September. The war in Gaza is still raging with no end in sight.
More than 3,760 people were killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon during the conflict, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel — over half of them civilians — as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon.
Some 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon, and thousands began streaming back to their homes on Wednesday despite warnings from the Lebanese military and the Israeli army to stay out of certain areas. Some 50,000 people were displaced on the Israeli side, but few have returned and the communities near the northern border are still largely deserted.
In Menara, an Israeli community on the border with views into Lebanon, around three quarters of homes are damaged, some with collapsed roofs and burnt-out interiors. A few residents could be seen gathering their belongings on Thursday before leaving again.
