TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said that there was no scope for any malpractice in the implementation of government schemes pointing out that all money under various schemes was electronically transferred to the accounts of the beneficiaries.
Parrikar was replying to Opposition benches on Wednesday, which accused the government of allowing its party workers to distribute sanction letters and cheques personally to beneficiaries. Independent MLA from Porvorim Rohan Khaunte who raised the issue said that BJP Party workers were personally handing over sanction letters under various schemes and cheques under the Kanya Dhan scheme.
He alleged that he was in the know of this matter as far as all schemes namely the Laadli Laxmi scheme, Griha Aaadhar scheme and others were concerned.
“We do all the work of filling applications and submitting and so on and the BJP party workers go and distribute the sanction letters,” he said decrying the same.
He also said that even in the Kanya Dhan scheme cheques were being personally handed over to beneficiaries by ruling party workers and sought to know how the Department for Women and Child was allowing this to happen.
He took on Minister for Women and Child Dilip Parulekar who refuted the allegations outright and said that every MLA was being furnished a list of applications sanctioned under various schemes.
The Opposition created a ruckus here that they were not in receipt of any such list and also complained of delay in processing of forms of applicants from constituencies of Opposition legislators.
Chief Minister Parrikar said that henceforth the MLAs should forward by e-mail all such complaints pertaining to delay in sanction of schemes so that the government could take up the same and clear the applications expeditiously.
Parulekar said that at times some of the applicants did not furnish proper documentation as a result of which there was some delay in clearing of applications.
Parrikar tried to reply to allegations made by the Opposition of malpractices in schemes under Women and Child Ministry stating that the government had to take on additional liability of Rs 10.82 crore of schemes not paid for by the previous government.
He said that only in case of Kanya Dhan scheme cheques had to be given personally while all schemes implemented presently have direct linkage to accounts of the beneficiaries.
KAMDHENU SCHEME: The State government Wednesday said that it would prefer if Goa Dairy reduced the price of milk by a rupee or two and worked out profits on turnover basis by packaging milk for supply in Goa rather than exporting it.
Replying in the Goa Legislative Assembly, which began its six-day session Wednesday, Parrikar said that all efforts are on to ensure that good breed of cows are supplied to dairy farmers so as to increase milk yield in the State.
“The target is to have three lakh litres of milk production in five years,” he said pointing out that the government was keen on resolving all issues concerning dairy farmers in the State regarding procurement of animals.
Parrikar also said that the government would be open to the idea of having more agents through whom farmers could procure cows and buffaloes and that farmers could also procure milk-yielding cattle after taking all necessary safeguards especially in the wake of Foot and Mouth disease.
The CM said that the government had devised a new Kamdhenu scheme last year and pointed out that in case farmers were not happy with the animals supplied they were free to buy animals of their choice from the open market. To a recommendation that the government should procure animals from North India, Parrikar said that it would not be feasible as those animals would not be suited to Goa’s climatic conditions. Speaking on the issue of stray cattle, Parrikar said that the government was having a problem of space at the existing farm but had, however, not stopped impounding stray cattle.
