Kalyana Lakshmi, Shaadi Mubarak Aid Now Rs 100,116

The Telangana government has enhanced the financial assistance to the beneficiaries of the Kalyana Lakshmi and Shaadi Mubarak welfare programs by an additional Rs 25,000.

Announcing this in the Assembly on Monday after Question Hour, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao said that the state government had decided to raise the financial assistance under the two schemes to Rs 1,00,116 from the present Rs 75,116.

He said that the enhancement of the assistance was taken to ease the burden on poor families in performing the weddings of their daughters.

The Chief Minister said that it was very unfortunate that a girl-child, who should be considered as a "Bhagyalakshmi", was now being viewed as a big burden on her family because of the problems to be faced in performing her wedding. Many families had become bankrupt after the weddings of their girls as loans were procured at heavy interests for the wedding, he said.

In order to mitigate the burden on such families, the Chief Minister said that his government had launched Kalyana Lakshmi on October 2, 2016, though it was not even in the election manifesto of the TRS. To start with, an assistance of Rs 50,116 per wedding of a girl was provided under the scheme to SC, ST and BC families. Later, Muslims were also included in the welfare scheme, which was called Shaadi Mubarak in their case. The assistance was later raised to Rs 75,116. So far, 3.69 lakh beneficiaries had availed thmeselves of the financial assistance, he claimed.

The Chief Minister said that the two schemes, which were dear to his heart, were being appreciated all over the country. Keeping in view the increase in the expenditure being incurred on weddings in view of the higher costs now, the government had decided to enhance the assistance by Rs 25,000, and the beneficiaries would now get Rs 1,00,116, he said.

The announcement received thunderous applause from both the Treasury and the opposition benches.

Deputy Chief Minister Kadiam Srihari made a similar announcement in the Legislative Council.