PANJIM: Days after the Goa government paused the Goa Yuva Samwad Yojana Scheme (GYSY) for the youth, the BJP-led State government has now temporarily suspended its flagship Griha Aadhar scheme for review.
The government has clarified that the scheme has not been discontinued but has been temporarily suspended for review as the sanctioned strength of 1.52 lakh had reached the upper limit. All sanctioned applicants will, however, continue to avail the scheme’s benefits.
Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said the Griha Aadhar scheme has reached to its upper limit, so new applications will not be considered unless the old are reviewed.
“Till we review the old cases and eliminate those who are not eligible, we cannot accept more applications as the government has to see and review the income limit also, as the VII Pay Commission is being implemented by the government,” Parrikar said.
The government was currently spending Rs 22.8 crore per month on the scheme but if one calculates the annual spending on the total 1.52 lakh beneficiaries it amounts to a whopping Rs 273.60 crore.
The Griha Aadhar Scheme is a flagship scheme which was started by the BJP government in a bid to provide financial assistance and support to poor housewives/homemakers and women from the middle, lower middle section and poor sections of society.
The scheme is meant to help the poorer sections of society to maintain a reasonable standard of living for which the government provides Rs 1500 every month directly to the women in the family, whose annual family income is less than Rs 3,00,000.
“In regards to Griha Aadhar Scheme, the limit was kept of 1.52 lakh applications and since that limit is reached, we are taking up the scheme for review and after that is done we will be considering new applications. The review of the scheme will be carried out to see the impact of the scheme on the people, basically it can be called a survey to see how far it has benefited people,” Women and Child Development Director Ruhi Redkar said.
“The sanction limit is over so we will not be sanctioning new applications until the scheme is reviewed. However, applications which have been sanctioned will continue to get the benefit of the scheme. We are also not issuing nor printing new forms,” she said.
Former Chief Minister, Laxmikant Parsekar, in his budget speech, had increased the amount of the scheme to Rs 1500 a month after receiving suggestions.
