President of District-level Guarantee Schemes Implementation Committee, Bharath Mundody, on Tuesday directed officials to remove deceased Gruha Lakshmi scheme beneficiaries from the list.

During the meeting in Mangaluru on Tuesday, Mr. Mundody said he was saddened to hear from the State government that ₹22 crore has been deposited to the bank accounts of beneficiaries who are deceased in Dakshina Kannada. He directed officials to weed out the names of the deceased from the list and take action for return of the amount deposited since the death of the beneficiary.

If the name of the deceased and her bank details are available, officials can take steps to stop the payment of ₹2,000 monthly financial assistance. If the same is not available, officials can get the list of deceased from the panchayat and remove those beneficiaries.

As many as 3,82 lakh of 4.25 lakh women ration card holders have registered for the Gruha Lakshmi scheme in Dakshina Kannada, an official from the Department of Women and Child Development said.

On the problems faced by Anna Bhagya scheme beneficiaries, especially elderly persons, owing to biometric identification device at the ration shops, Mr. Mundody said beneficiaries, whose fingerprints do not match, should be given relaxation in identification. They should not be denied benefits of Anna Bhagya. The Yuva Nidhi scheme beneficiaries should be made aware of skill training programmes and these programmes should be held at the taluk level, Mr. Mundody said.