Welfare schemes hijacked by non-deserving people?
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, November 22 2018:
Many quarters have raised strong suspicion that benefits of several welfare schemes implemented by the Government to help economically backward families are being hijacked by non-deserving people.
There is a growing need to devise an effective mechanism which can identify the real poor and their number in the State.
According to information received from CAF&PD Department, the total population of Manipur is 28.56 lakhs and the total number of households is 92,124.Both the Government of India and the State Government implement welfare schemes after taking into account the total population of the economically backward people.
But it remains highly questionable whether the benefits of several welfare schemes meant for poor families actually reach them or not.
Under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), food grains are provided to poor families at subsidised rates.
But it demands a thorough scrutiny and see whether all the NFSA card holders are actually poor people or not.
There are thousands of families who are in possession of BPL cards while they must be given priority household cards and vice versa.
These lapses and loopholes are there for the past many years but neither CAF&PD Department nor the State Government has ever bothered to devise any mechanism to address these lapses effectively.
Around three lakh people of Manipur are listed in the Socio-Economic Caste Census of 2011 but the Government is yet to identify them properly.
As those listed in the SECC 2011 are verified by officials through house to house to survey, they are genuinely poor.
Yet it is possible that many of them do not have adequate awareness about the many welfare schemes being implemented by the Government specifically for them.