Bengaluru: In a serious lapse that has raised questions about the implementation of the state government’s flagship Gruha Lakshmi scheme, it has been revealed that nearly Rs 22 crore was credited to the bank accounts of deceased beneficiaries in Karnataka’s Dakshina Kannada district.
The shocking discrepancy came to light during a district-level review meeting on the guarantee scheme implementation held at the Zilla Panchayat hall. Officials confirmed that payments under the scheme continued to be transferred even to inactive or closed accounts, including those belonging to deceased individuals, triggering immediate concern among the district administration.
Following the disclosure, authorities have initiated urgent steps to identify such cases and recover the misdirected funds. Officials from the Women and Child Development Department informed the meeting that Dakshina Kannada has 4,25,759 ration card holders eligible under the Gruha Lakshmi scheme, of which 3,82,178 beneficiaries have been registered so far.
Prevent further transactions, freeze accounts: Mundodi
Chairing the District-Level Guarantee Schemes Implementation Review Committee at the Zilla Panchayat, Bharat Mundodi, expressed serious concern over the lapse and directed officials to prepare a verified list of deceased beneficiaries without delay. He instructed that bank account details of deceased persons be collected and shared with concerned banks to freeze accounts and prevent further transactions.
He also warned that the continuation of payments to ineligible accounts pointed to systemic gaps in coordination between field-level offices, data management systems, and banking channels. Officials were told to treat the issue with urgency and ensure strict monitoring to avoid further financial leakage.
Mundodi further directed that cases where living beneficiaries have been wrongly marked as deceased in official records must also be cross-verified and corrected immediately. He asked the department to coordinate with village accountants and revenue officials, who maintain death registration records, to ensure accuracy in beneficiary data.
A detailed report has been sought for the next review meeting, with instructions to include verification outcomes, recovery status, and corrective measures. The district administration is expected to coordinate with banks and state authorities to freeze suspicious accounts and expedite recovery of funds while strengthening the beneficiary validation system to prevent similar errors in the future.
