Now, dist welfare officers to transfer ‘shagun’ to Ashirwad beneficiaries

Rajmeet Singh
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, August 27

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To cut red tape, the state government has fast-tracked disbursal of shagun amount under the Ashirwad scheme provided to the family of a girl belonging to the Scheduled Caste (SC), Backward Class (BC) or economically weaker sections.

Now, the district welfare officers have been entrusted with the responsibility of directly depositing the shagun amount into the beneficiaries’ accounts through real time gross settlement (RTGS).

In the past, there were complaints of girls getting married with their families still awaiting the benefit. In 2018-19, around 2,000 applications of the intended beneficiaries were rejected as the shagun amount could not be deposited into their accounts.

“Due to the delay in disbursal of the amount, the beneficiaries’ accounts do not witness any transaction and become inoperative. Then, such accounts can’t receive the shagun amount,” pointed a senior government functionary. After the Chief Minister’s nod, the Social Welfare Department has instructed its district welfare officers to ensure that the amount is transferred from their official account into that of beneficiaries’ within two days of money being released from the state headquarters.

In case of non-disbursal, the district welfare officers have been asked to remove the shortcomings and disburse the amount within seven days of detecting the anomaly.

Explaining the delays, an officer said under the previous arrangement the banks were entrusted with the responsibility of disbursing the amount but when there were some issues with the beneficiaries’ accounts, the amount could not be disbursed. Now, instead of the bank, the money would go into the official account of the district welfare officer who would transfer it into the beneficiaries’ account.