The State Cabinet on Wednesday approved benefits under the Mukhyamantri Kanyadan Yojana and Mukhyamantri Sukanya Yojana to all the 57 lakh odd ration card holders in Jharkhand. Till date, the eligibility of beneficiaries under the schemes was decided on the basis of the Socio Economic Class Census (SECC). However, now on the eligibility criteria for seeking benefits under the two State-run schemes will be same as the eligibility criteria for Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMYU), Secretary of the Department of Women, Child Development and Social Security, Amitabh Kaushal said.
“All the ration card holders in Jharkhand will be eligible for Mukhyamantri Kanyadan Yojana and Mukhyamantri Sukanya Yojana. There are three categories of ration card holders under NFSA (National Food Security Act) and all of them will be eligible for benefits under the two welfare schemes,” Kaushal said. The three categories of ration card holders under NFSA are priority card holders, Antyodaya card holders and white card holders.
The Cabinet on Wednesday also decided that the State will bear the cost of one additional cylinder refill under PMUY for all the beneficiaries here in year 2019-2020. The cost of refilling the cylinders will be directly credited to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT). “The beneficiaries with 14.2 Kg cylinder will get one additional refill from the State, while the ones with 5 Kg cylinders will get two additional refills,” Kaushal said.
Chief Minister Raghubar Das launched the Mukhyamantri Sukanya Yojana in January this year. Aimed at providing social security to girl children, the scheme assures Rs 40,000 in seven installments to a girl child since the day she is born. The installments will be directly deposited to the registered bank account of the beneficiary’s mother. If beneficiaries under this scheme plan to get married, then the State will pay the family a sum of Rs 30,000 under Mukhyamantri Kanyadan Yojana.
Other than increasing the target beneficiaries under welfare schemes, the Cabinet on Wednesday also approved monetary compensation to the families of poll personnel who either get injured or lose their lives during poll duty.
Poll personnel involved in conducting Lok Sabha elections, Assembly elections, municipal elections and Panchayat elections will be covered under the scheme, said State Urban Development Secretary AK Singh.
As per the scheme, the compensation amount will double from Rs 15 lakh to Rs 30 lakh for any poll staff who dies in an act of extremism violence such as land mine blast, bomb blast or firing, said Singh. Compensations will also be given to the poll personnel who get disabled in attacks executed by Left Wing Extremist (LWE) groups. As per the scheme, people who sustain five to 20 per cent disability in LWE attacks will get a compensation of Rs.75,000. The amount will go up to Rs.7.5 lakh for people who sustain more than 75 per cent disability in such incidents. The compensation will be doubled if the disability is caused in land mine blasts, bomb blasts or firing.
As per figures with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), at least 18 of 24 districts in Jharkhand are LWE affected. Apart from the main CPI (Maoist), at least 17 splinter groups are active in Jharkhand.
The Cabinet on Wednesday approved 19 proposals. It also decided to strengthen the disaster management measures in rural areas of Jharkhand.
The Cabinet decided that the Government will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) for strengthening the disaster management works in 19 backward districts of Jharkhand.
