India, July 21 -- Karnataka on Monday launched a statewide campaign to deliver permanent residence and caste certificates free of cost to eligible households, with chief minister DK Shivakumar presenting the initiative as an effort to protect citizens' rights and improve access to government services. The programme immediately drew objections from the BJP, which questioned its constitutional basis and demanded that it be withdrawn.

The state government said permanent residence certificates would be issued from Tuesday through nearly 7,000 centres, in addition to the doorstep delivery programme. It also launched a dedicated website and WhatsApp service for permanent residence certificates.

The rollout comes as the Election Commission con...