Dy CM Prabhati Parida clarifies why Odisha govt kept the 21-60 age-group for Subhadra Yojana and how to stop ghost beneficiaries
Bhubaneswar: ‘Subhadra Yojana,’ the new scheme of the Odisha government has now become a subject of discussion among the people of all walks of live across the State. While the Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Ministers, Ministers, secretaries and concerned officials are not leaving any stones unturned for the successful implementation of the scheme, the general public are busy in filling up the forms to get the benefit of the scheme. In such scenario, several doubts and confusions have come to the fore. However, Deputy CM Prabhati Parida, in an exclusive interview with the Kalinga TV, has clarified each and every doubt and assured to provide the financial assistance to all eligible beneficiaries of the State.
While speaking about the logic behind deciding the specific age group, i.e from 21 years of age to 60 years of age, Parida explained saying that there is a specific category for the beneficiaries. Be it the Ladli Behna Yojana of the Madhya Pradesh government or Mahtari Vandana Yojana of Chhattisgarh government, the age-group has been kept at 21 to 60 and it is the same across the county. “Over 7 lakh women in Odisha are between 18 and 21 years of age. The financial assistance under the Subhadra Yojana might not be useful for an 18-year-old girl to become her an entrepreneur. Therefore, we decided to keep the national rate of age-group, i.e from 21 to 60.”
When asked what are the steps being taken by the government to stop the ghost beneficiaries from getting the Subhadra Yojana benefits, the deputy CM said, “The Adhaar card number would help us to ascertain the real age of the applicants. We want the money should reach to the women and not even to their husbands. There are 74,000 Anganwadi centres in Odisha and the Subhadra Yojana forms have been distributed to the beneficiaries through them. Even the Mission Shakti members are helping the applicants how to fill the forms and are clearing all doubts about the scheme. The trained women like MBK, CRP-CM, Bank Mitra and Prani Mitra, who are working at the Grama Panchayat-level are also helping in the process of implementation of the scheme. Therefore, I think, Subhadra Yojana would be the only scheme which will be monitored by the Chief Secretary at the Secretariat and at the grassroot level by the women who have become self-sufficient through different schemes.”
Watch the complete interview of Deputy CM Prabhati Parida with Kalinga TV: