Social Welfare Department Budgam provides timely assistance to beneficiaries

61671 households provided relief, 10063 new beneficiaries added

BUDGAM, MAY 19: District Social Welfare Office Budgam has been taking measures to reach out to the under privileged communities in the district and several initiatives have been taken like timely release of relief and monetary assistance to the destitute, poor, old aged and other socially & economically backward and deserving beneficiaries. The efforts of DSWO Budgam in identifying and sanctioning of cases, particularly old age assistance including pending cases have been appreciated at all levels.
While elaborating on the efforts and the procedure adopted for quick results, District Social Welfare Officer Budgam Dr. Farhana Asgar said that her office had to negotiate tough times in the prevailing conditions and despite all odds and inconveniences, the DSW office Budgam has been able to provide monthly assistance under different welfare schemes and it has credited the same into accounts of all existing 40917 beneficiaries for the month of January and February 2020. Furthermore, same category beneficiaries have also been credited two months advance assistance for the month of March and April 2020. Apart from this 10691 newly sanctioned beneficiaries have been provided six months monetary assistance. DSWO further revealed that to clear the pendency, about 10063 new beneficiaries have been verified in the month of March 2020 and simultaneously an amount of Rs. 100.63 lakh has been credited into their accounts. She said with new entrants, the department has been able to cover 61671 households and their entire assistance stands credited into their dedicated accounts. “It was an unprecedented initiative from the Government and we were able to minimize the adverse impact of the ongoing lockdown,” she said.
Elaborating on other initiatives, the DSWO said that under PM Garib Kalyan Yojna (PMGKY), a special assistance scheme, all the beneficiaries under Indira Gandhi National Old Age Scheme (IGNOAS) have been provided one time additional assistance of Rs. 1000 in two equal installments for the month of April and May 2020 through the DBT mode.
Similarly, the Department under PMGKY has disbursed Rs 192000 directly, crediting Rs 1000 each into individual accounts of the beneficiaries registered under IGNWPS and IGNDPS schemes. Besides, Rs 2 lakh were released and credited into the accounts of 10 poor and needy widows under the DBT mode registered under the NFBS. Dr. Farhana Asgar emphasized that social welfare department Budgam is committed to the socio-economic upliftment of vulnerable sections of society particularly during Covid-19 outbreak and the department has taken the responsibility to make the process convenient and ensure all beneficiaries registered with department receive timely monetary assistance. She said the department was able to provide assistance to 300 cases and sanction 46 new cases under State Marriage Assistance Scheme (SMAS) taking the tally to 346. Under Pre and Post Matric scholarship scheme for deserving school and college going students about 70K students registered themselves to receive scholarship under this scheme and in addition under ICPS, 54 children belonging to orphan and handicapped category have received scholarships.
Regarding the issue of nonpayment or delay in some cases the DSWO clarified that some errors may have happened while registering and recording entries of the names and bank account numbers of the concerned beneficiaries. “The matter is being sorted out on priority and no deserving person would be left uncovered and he or she will be provided all due assistance”, she added.
The efforts and dedication demonstrated by the Social Welfare Department Budgam have been widely appreciated by all concerned including the beneficiaries covered under various welfare schemes who received monetary assistance particularly the efforts of DSWO, Dr. Farhana Asgar in providing succor to needy ones during the covid-19 crisis