CHENNAI: With only months left for the Assembly elections, the government has decided to launch the expansion of Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thogai (KMUT) scheme on December 12. The expanded scheme would be launched at a grant event at Nehru Indoor Stadium, said sources, adding that 15 lakh women would be added as beneficiaries.
With this, the total number of beneficiaries will go up to 1.30 crore women.
The government has tweaked the conditions to provide certain relaxations, due to which those who have cars, women family members of retired anganwadi employees, and village assistants are now eligible for the government dole.
The applications for inclusion into the scheme were distributed during the Ungaludan Stalin camps across the State. During this period, around 28 lakh women had submitted the forms. After the applications were scrutinised, around 15 lakhs applicants were found to be eligible under the scheme.
The Department of Special Programme Implementation is the nodal agency to implement the scheme. The scheme benefits about 1.15 crore women, including 14.246 lakh women from Sri Lankan Tamil families. It may be noted that 15% of beneficiaries are above 60 years, while 17% are single women who are widowed, separated, divorced, or unmarried.