Team Herald
PANJIM: With thousands of applications for the Griha Aadhar scheme pending for almost a year, the State government is contemplating increasing the upper limit of beneficiaries from the existing 1.52 lakh.
The scheme is currently under review, as the government has observed several bogus beneficiaries, whose names would be deleted from the scheme soon.
“I have been getting complaints about applications being pending. We are now contemplating increasing the sanctioned strength limit, which is currently fixed at 1.52 lakh,” Women and Child Development Minister Vishwajit Rane told media persons.
“We have already touched the upper limit of 1.52 lakh and hence there were no new sanctions. We are now reviewing the scheme. I have come across the fact that there are several bogus beneficiaries while many have obtained benefits using fake documents,” the Minister said stating that all the names would be removed from the beneficiary list.
The scheme, launched in 2012, initially provided a monthly financial benefit of Rs 1000 to housewives. Subsequently the amount was increased to 1200 per month and later to Rs 1500 per month. However, since April this year, the government has stopped all fresh sanctions. There are 23,000 applications pending.
The government on an average spends Rs 22.8 crore per month on the scheme but if one calculates the annual spending on the 1.52 lakh beneficiaries it amounts to a whopping Rs 273.60 crore.
Rane also said that there are around 950 applications for the Laadli Laxmi scheme pending and these would be cleared within a month.
