Hyderabad, March 31 The CAG has found loopholes in the implementation of the Telangana government's 'Kalyana Lakshmi' scheme, which resulted in ineligible beneficiaries receiving the benefit.
Kalyana Lakshmi is a welfare scheme, introduced by the previous BRS government in 2014, to alleviate the financial distress of parents in conducting the marriage of their daughters by providing financial assistance of Rs 1,00,116.
In its report for the period ended March 2022, the Comptroller and Auditor General said that analysis of data related to Kalyana Lakshmi and scrutiny of records at Revenue Divisional Offices and Tahsildar offices indicated that "adequate controls" were not provided to ensure compliance with government orders for the effective implementation of the scheme.
Adequate controls were not put in place to ensure that only eligible beneficiaries availed of the scheme.
As a result, the audit found that the scheme was being extended to ineligible beneficiaries such as underage brides, brides whose parents' income exceeded the eligible criteria, and brides who were married before the scheme was introduced, involving a total monetary value of Rs 55.12 crore in 5,522 cases that were test-checked in the audit.
There was no system for cross-checking the databases of different beneficiary-oriented schemes implemented by the state government and the Centre, the CAG report, tabled in the Assembly, said.
The lack of an adequate communication mechanism and grievance redressal system resulted in beneficiaries repeatedly visiting Tahsildar offices to inquire about the status of their applications, and also in delayed distribution of cheques, as the state government had not introduced online transfer of incentives to beneficiary accounts.