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Coffee with HT: No shortage of funds for welfare schemes, says U.P. minister Asim Arun
Minister of state (independent charge) for social welfare, scheduled caste and tribal welfare Asim Arun has said the state government’s “Sarkar Aapke Dwar” (government at your doorstep) scheme is proving handy in listing more eligible beneficiaries in various welfare schemes in Uttar Pradesh
Minister of state (independent charge) for social welfare, scheduled caste and tribal welfare Asim Arun has said the state government’s “Sarkar Aapke Dwar” (government at your doorstep) scheme is proving handy in listing more eligible beneficiaries in various welfare schemes in Uttar Pradesh.
He said there was a need for better scheme targeting to cover more eligible people and the state government’s machinery was being used to ensure it.
“Yes, we have to become better in scheme targeting. We have “Sarkar Aapke Dwar” (government at your doorstep) scheme to cover eligible people. We tell the people in advance and the process is completed in five days,” said Arun at the Coffee with HT programme here on Wednesday when asked about the need for more coverage of eligible people under welfare schemes.
Arun said there was no shortage of funds for any welfare scheme and the social welfare department had a budget of ₹23,000 crore. He said the focus was on linking Aadhaar to schemes to ensure that the benefits reach the right people. “The change we are looking at is better scheme targeting. There are some people who are not eligible and have taken advantage of the schemes. At the same time, we are missing some people who are eligible. We are working on linking Aadhaar. About 60 percent beneficiaries have been linked with Aadhar. We have found that out of these beneficiaries, 2 lakh are dead and so they have not updated their accounts. I will not call this fraud because the family may not be aware that they have to inform us. This is our fault that we have to check this,” said Arun.
“We are going to each and every home, visiting the beneficiaries for verification and linking the Aadhaar to their accounts. This will take about two months. We have to do this for scholarship schemes as well. For senior citizens, we have introduced a helpline. They can call if their pension is stuck. We are in the process of setting up such a contact centre (helpline) for scholarships as well. For implementation of all the schemes, we are going online. But poor beneficiary is not online. There is a gap. The state government’s functionary ‘gram sahayak’ will be going home to home to bridge this gap. We will complete the exercise in the next two months.”
About rationalisation of welfare schemes, he agreed there was a multiplicity of the schemes. He said there was a need to have a lesser number of schemes. About other schemes, he said the social welfare department was running 94 boarding schools called the Rajkiya Ashram Padyati Vidyalaya or the Ashram Type Schools or the ATS. “I take this as a challenge and opportunity to turn around these schools. These schools are running well but not as great as they should. We are putting in more resources. We are bringing in more teachers. We are working with private persons and NGOs. We will bring about a perceptible change in these schools in the next six months and there will be a long queue to get admissions there. We have government hostels for youths of scheduled caste and scheduled tribe too. Some are in good condition. But there is a need for improvement. We have schemes like Prime Minister’s Anusuchit Jan Jati Abhudaya Yojana. Another scheme is called Babu Jagjivan Ram Chhatravas Yojana. There is adequate funding to bring about improvement there.”
