The Trinamool Congress (TMC) announced on Saturday to implement a direct cash transfer plan for women in Goa if it wins the state’s Assembly elections in February next year. TMC spokesperson Mahua Moitra claimed that under the Griha Laxmi programme, 5,000 would be provided to a woman in every home every month as a guaranteed income assistance to battle inflation whenever the party comes to power. She claimed the TMC would soon begin issuing cards for the plan, which would have unique identity numbers, and that these cards would become operative once the TMC formed a government in Goa.
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The Mamata Banerjee-led party has stated that it will run for all 40 seats in the state legislature. “The Griha Laxmi programme will include women from 3.5 lakh families in the state,” Ms Moitra, the TMC’s Goa in-charge, said.” She said that the present BJP government’s plan in Goa only offers women with $1,500 per month and only serves 1.5 lakh homes owing to the income restriction.
According to her, the TMC’s proposal is expected to cost six to eight percent of Goa’s overall budget. COVID-19 has decreased the country’s economy, which has to be regenerated, according to recent research,” Moitra remarked. If voted to power, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which will also fight the Goa elections, has vowed to raise the pay granted to women in the coastal state under the state-sponsored plan and to provide financial aid to women who are not covered by it.
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Arvind Kejriwal, the AAP’s national convener, said during a recent visit to the state that if his party wins power in Goa, the existing remuneration of 1,500 per month provided to women under the Griha Aadhar scheme will be increased to 2,500, while other women aged 18 and above who are not covered by the scheme will be paid 1,000 per month. On Friday, Congress national secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who was in Goa for a day, guaranteed a 30% job quota for women if her party was elected to power in the state. She said that the incumbent BJP’s philosophy was “anti-women,” and she urged people to look into the track records of new parties from “outside” the state.
