Kalyana Lakshmi ‘scrap’ scare meets Rs 3,683 cr
KTR accuses; the Congress-run Telangana government’s own 2025–26 Budget sets aside Rs 3,683 crore for Kalyana Lakshmi/Shaadi Mubarak. The numbers are public; the ‘plan to scrap’ is not.
The 2025–26 Budget-in-Brief lists Rs 3,683 crore for Kalyana Lakshmi and Shaadi Mubarak.
BRS working president K. T. Rama Rao has alleged the Congress government in Telangana is plotting to scrap Kalyana Lakshmi and Shaadi Mubarak, and called for protests. The evidence on the record so far: the state’s 2025–26 Budget-in-Brief provides Rs 3,683 crore for the two schemes. According to the budget document, the line item reads “Kalyana lakshmi / Shaadi Mubarak — Rs 3,683 crore.”
The schemes themselves are not a rumour mill invention. A district government page records they have been official Telangana programmes since October 2, 2014, for eligible women aged 18+ with a parental-income ceiling of Rs 2 lakh a year. The state’s public accounts for 2026–27 also carry separate heads for these schemes under SC, ST, BC and Minority Welfare — another sign they exist on paper beyond a talking point.
There are legitimate complaints about Congress delivery. Reporting has flagged delayed cheques, including assistance turning up long after the wedding — and even after a child — while the Congress’s campaign promise of adding 10 grams of gold has already met the “not happening soon” treatment from an ally. That is underperformance, not cancellation.
What is missing is a government order, cabinet note, finance cut, or any official statement from the Congress-run administration that it plans to kill the schemes. If the Congress wants to deny it, it can try something radical: say so, on the record, and explain the delays it owns. Until then, the only formal plan on file is Rs 3,683 crore with the schemes’ names on it.