GOVT PLANS SCHEME FOR DISADVANTAGED RURAL FAMILIES

The Punjab government has decided to identify disadvantaged families in rural areas to provide them benefits of social welfare programmes.

The identification of families, which got left out despite being entitled to these benefits, will be carried out under a new scheme, Sarv Jan Hitkari Scheme, to reach out to them. “There are at least 20 to 25 such families in each village. Their total number could even be up to 8-9 lakhs in the state. These disadvantaged families have remained ignored because either they are not aware of welfare programmes or no government agency has reached out to them hitherto,” said a senior officer.

He said that besides ensuring convergence of welfare programmes such as atta-dal scheme, social pensions and shagun scheme, it will help in covering deprived sections and destitute in rural areas. The rural development department is still to decide whether to merge the existing databases of welfare programmes or conduct a fresh statewide survey to identify disadvantaged families.

The officer added that the identification will also be helpful because such families could get a helping hand from non-resident Indians (NRIs) under the Mukh Mantri NRI Gram Garima Scheme. The NRIs can adopt villages or help struggling families under this programme.

WILL HELP IN COVERING DEPRIVED SECTIONS AND DESTITUTE IN RURAL AREAS, ENSURE CONVERGENCE OF WELFARE SCHEMES