CM's livelihood support: Short deadline upsets many
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, July 29 2021:
The short deadline for submission of application form for availing Chief Minister's Covid-19 Affected Livelihood Support Scheme has been a cause of concern for many.
As per notification issued by social welfare department on Wednesday, the duration for submission of application is from July 30 to August 7.On the other hand, the state government extended the total curfew up to August 3 and submitting the application forms along with the relevant documents in just four days would be an almost impossible task.
Besides, it is not certain the government will not extend the curfew beyond August 3.Since the application form should be submitted only in offline mode, the beneficiaries would be facing difficulties in ensuring timely submission of their application forms.
Street vendors, women vendors, public transport driver, school van drivers, artists/performing artistes, who are already availing Chief Ministergi Artistesin-gi Tengbang, are eligible to avail the benefit.
They have to submit copies of registration, license, permit or list of beneficiaries issued by the department concerned along with copy of bank passbook.
Though the notification mentions that the scheme will be implemented in phased manner, several people in the BPL group, who have lost their livelihood sources due to the pandemic, are left out from the scheme in the first phase.
Several categories of profession such as home-based business, farmers, shop assistants, artisans and weavers were included in the initial notification issued by the government but the latest notification left out these categories from the first phase of the scheme.
Except for a meagre quantity of free food grains per month, these groups of people are spending their days without any opportunity to earn their livelihood during the pandemic.
With election approaching fast, these excluded groups of people, who are engaged in various manual or unorganised sectors such as manual labourers and shop salesmen, are worried that they might not get the chance to avail the benefits.