Tura, August 30: The Chief Minister Dr. Mukul Sangma expressed a deep sense of satisfaction that the Chief Minister’s Social Assistance Programmes have been effective in reaching out to the most vulnerable sections of the society and that the way forward now was to go beyond assistance and empower them by giving them the right kind of skilling under various skill development programmes to enable them to be independent and have a sustainable livelihood.
The Chief Minister reviewed the implementation of the Social Assistance Schemes in the five districts of Garo Hills in the presence of Social Welfare Minister, Clement Marak, West Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner Pravin Bakshi, Director, Social Welfare, H.M. Shangpliang, senior officials and other district officials of the department and CDPOs at Tura Circuit House on Wednesday.
It may be mentioned that the Chief Minister’s Social Assistance Scheme for the Persons with Disabilities (PWDs), Infirm and Widows (the nomenclature of which was later changed to include all single mothers) and Chief Minister’s Wedding Assistance Scheme for Orphan Girls were launched in 2012. Although the response was low during the initial stages of implementation, the period from 2015-16 and 2016-17 saw a huge climb in the number of beneficiaries due to interventions like mass enrollment drives undertaken by the department across the state which was initiated by the Chief Minister himself.
The total number of beneficiaries and the total expenditure under these schemes up to March 2016-2017 are as follows: 5305 PWDs @ Rs.10,99,12,500/- , 15014 Single Mothers and 31339 Infirm @ Rs.62,57,11000/- and 225 beneficiaries under Wedding Assistance Scheme @ Rs.3,37,50,000/-.
The Chief Minister, while lauding the efforts of the department officials in successful implementation of the programme, said that besides giving them the assistance it would be appropriate to move forward to really empower the beneficiaries, particularly single mothers with various skilling activities. Because of the rise in single mothers across the State, he took it upon himself to personally talk to the Chief Secretary to design all skilling programmes specifically for single mothers. Now that the department had a ready data under this programmes, they would also be able to easily identify the right persons for specific skill development training. He also urged upon the department to continue wide publicity of these social assistance programme to ensure that no eligible person is left out.
Participating in the meeting, Social Welfare Minister Clement Marak flagged the problem being faced by the beneficiaries as the funds transferred into their accounts were being deducted by the banks for the loans availed by them. Some of the department officials also echoed similar problems pertaining to the banks. In this connection the Chief Minister suggested that the beneficiaries can be asked to open thrift cooperative societies so that their money can be transferred directly to them.
