Srinagar: Apr 8: Signifying messy state of affairs, over 1, 50000 applications filed by downtrodden people seeking benefit of various welfare schemes are pending in the Social Welfare Department for past many years.
 Inordinate delay in disposal of these applications have raised eyebrows over the functioning of the Department which has been entrusted to work for welfare and upliftment of poor and downtrodden.  
 Sources said 27,000 applications are pending under the State sponsored Integrated Social Security Scheme (ISSS), aimed to provide relief to widows, destitutes, divorced women in the State.
 Presently 215563 women are enrolled from this scheme and receive financial assistance of Rs 200 per month under the head of old aged, women in distress and Rs 400 in case of physically challenged persons respectively. 
 Sources said under the scheme, the bonafide beneficiaries should get one handloom kit costing Rs 3500. However, the SWD has failed to meet this expense in most cases, sources said. 
 “Thus the basic purpose of making these destitute women self-reliant has failed. They are dependent on meager Rs 200 per month which can hardly impact their miserable lives,” they said. 
 Similarly under the centrally sponsored Old Age Pension Scheme of IGNOAPS Rs1269.55 have been disbursed in January this year. Besides 66103 senior citizens aged 60 and above and falling in BPL category are receiving Rs 400 per month as pension.
 “For this scheme staggering 45000 cases are pending. Besides 19000 applicants have not been provided with BPL ID numbers which is a must criterion to benefit from this scheme,” sources said. 
 Under Disability Pension Scheme only 2095 handicapped with 80 percent disability (severe disability) are drawing monthly relief of Rs 400. “While most of the disabled remain unaware of this scheme as no government agency has taken pains to conduct exhaustive survey to find exact number of disabled persons falling under this category,” they said. 
 Likewise under the National Family Benefit Scheme, which is a centrally funded scheme, one time relief of Rs 10,000 is provided to a poor family in case of death of their primary bread earner.
 In Kashmir division 2000 such cases are registered with the SWD. “But none of them has been provided with the necessary relief till date. There are dozen of social welfare schemes about which common poor people have no knowledge not to mention of benefiting from them. One of them is Contributory Social Security Scheme (CSS) under which financial support is provided to marginal workers. “Nobody is benefiting from this scheme in Kashmir province as there is little awareness about many welfare schemes. Without proper planning and implementation of these schemes, most of the deserving people who live under extreme poverty and helplessness are unable to benefit from these welfare schemes,” said an official wishing anonymity.
 The Director of Social Welfare Department said that a committee headed by Chief Secretary has been set up to look into the pending cases and provision for their funding. “An amount of Rs 72 crores will be required to accommodate all pending 1,50000 cases,” he said.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 8 Apr 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 8 Apr 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 9 Apr 2012 00:00:00 IST