PANJIM: The State government on Thursday announced to implement the Centrally sponsored ‘SMILE’ scheme for the Scheduled Caste (SC) and Other Backward Class (OBC) families, whose only bread earner was victim of COVID-19 infection.
In a press statement, the State government has said that the scheme will be implemented through the Goa State SC/OBC Finance Development Corporation.
The objective of the scheme is to identify a livelihood project which produces sustainable income so that the SC/OBC household ravaged by COVID will be able to secure decent incomes.
Under the scheme “SMILE” it is proposed to extend the financial support in the form of credit linked capital subsidy up to 20 per cent of the project cost that will be a minimum of Rs one lakh per beneficiary, for any need based self-employment ventures with a project cost of up to Rs 5 lakh per unit. The balance Rs four lakh will be landed in form of loan.
The eligibility criteria for the schemes is that the beneficiary should be member of SC/OBC community, the applicants annual family income should be up to Rs 3 lakh, needs to be an immediate relative of the person who died due to COVID-19 and was the bread earner of the family and the age of deceased should be between 18 to 60 years.
“Identified loanees will also be given required skill/entrepreneurial inputs for their capacity building,” it said.
The Corporation has invited applications from the eligible beneficiaries from SC/OBC communities so as to build their database for onward submission to the National Apex Corporation, National Backward Class Finance Development Corporation.
