Disorderly lines of people extending beyond the centre’s premises with elderly women and middle-aged women carrying children populated the Kasturi Nagar Bangalore One centre where many had gathered for the registration of the Gruha Lakshmi scheme.
Agitated, many of them were talking amongst themselves about the delay. Manjula, a homemaker, who waited for more than three hours to get registered, said, “We also have work at home, have to cook food and pick up our children from school... If we are stuck here, there is no one to take care of our chores,” she rued.
As the registration for one of the government’s flagship scheme, Gruha Lakshmi, under which women heads of the families get ₹2,000, every month, applicants have been rushing to the Bangalore One centres across the City to get registered. While the applicants are complaining about the long queues and technical snags at the centres, the staff have been working extra hours to cater to the applicants of the scheme as well as those interested in availing Gruha Jyothi, another flagship scheme of the government which provides up to 200 units of free power.
About 300 a day
The staff at the Bangalore One centres told The Hindu that an average of 300 applicants (of both Gruha Lakshmi and Gruha Jyothi schemes) queue up at the centres every day. They said that they were finding it difficult to manage the sudden surge in the number of people.
Shilpa, a Bangalore One clerk said, “The number of registrations per day is increasing every day. Applicants often break into fights that require assistance from the security. There is little that we can do.”
Staff shortage
Varamahalaxmi, another househelp and beneficiary of the scheme, complained about the lack of workers in the Kasturi Nagar Bangalore One centre. “Earlier there used to be three clerks who used to work here but it has reduced to only two now.”
In Murphy Town, the staff mentioned they are working two hours overtime every day and were hiring new staff to support registrations for the schemes. “Before the schemes were launched, we worked from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., but now we work from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m,” said Ayesha, the manager of Bangalore One Centre in Murphy Town. On Wednesday, the centre recorded 476 registrations for the schemes.
Adjoining the Murphy Town Centre is a children’s daytime nursery, where working women from the locality leave their children for supervision. Due to the rush at the Bangalore One centre, women applicants left their children in the daycare as they wait in the already overcrowded lines.
Expressing her frustration, Bhagya, a house help and mother of three said, “I haven’t gone to work today and asked my children to come here to the centre. I am missing out on a day’s salary.”
“The management in the centres was hardly able to manage the crowd and some people tried to jump the line, push each other and get into the office first. Others even try to sneak in through this chaos,” said Varsha, a BPL card holder.
Computer issues
Adding to the woes of the Jayanagar Bangalore One staff and the applicants, two of the four computer systems were down. Without any separate line for the Gruha Laxmi, and Gruha Jyoti applicants, confusion and chaos ruled the centre.
