The Shaadi Bhagya scheme tabled and brought on by the Indian National Congress government in Karnataka under the leadership of Siddaramiah in the year 2013 has been scrapped from the budget of the upcoming fiscal year by the BJP government.
The background
The scheme was aimed at providing financial assistance to the economically backward minority women and widows. The minority community includes women belonging to Muslim, Christian, Jain, Buddhist, Sikh, and Parsi communities. As per the scheme, the government would provide assistance up to fifty thousand rupees to the women who fulfill the eligibility criteria.
The eligibility criteria require the women to be from any of the minority community and must be a BPL card holder. The scheme can be benefitted only once in the lifetime of the woman and the aid is of 50,000 rupees only.
The Siddaramaiah government was heavily criticized for this move from the new Chief Minister, BS Yediyurappa who had then parted ways from the Bharatiya Janata Party and had formed his own party under the name Karnataka Janata Paksha. Yediyurappa termed the scheme as another step of the congress to appease the Muslim community and went on an indefinite strike to extend the beneficiaries to people in need irrespective of their religion.
BJP Scraps the Scheme
Now that Yediyurappa is back to power in the state, the budget for the year 2020-21 has omitted the allocation of budget for the Shaadi Bhagya scheme. The reason is being speculated to be the lack of budget at the government’s disposal. The government has also directed the authorities to not accept fresh applications under the scheme.
Opposition Condemns the move
Reacting to this, the opposition leader and the architect of the scheme, Siddaramaiah expressed disappointment and said that the move clearly exposes BJP’s anti-minority stand. Another Congress MLA, Rizwan Arshad, has vocally expressed his anger and claimed that the government has even cut down scholarship budgets allocated for minorities and also the omission of Shaadi Mahal scheme. The opposition is set to raise the issue in the upcoming legislative assembly session.
The government, however, has asked the authorities to list the names of the beneficiaries who are yet to receive the funds by Monday. Although no fresh applications will be accepted, the already applied ones are likely to avail of the benefit.
