Meeting dwells on welfare schemes for backward classes in Sirmaur dist

Himachal Pradesh Deputy Speaker Vinay Kumar presided over the district welfare committee meeting held today at the Deputy Commissioner’s office. The meeting focused on reviewing welfare schemes for the Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), Other Backward Classes (OBCs), minority communities, persons with disabilities, single women, widows, leprosy patients and senior citizens in the district.

During the meeting, officials apprised Kumar that an amount of Rs 54,05,18,736 was allocated for the welfare of beneficiaries in Sirmaur district for the current fiscal.

The allocated funds were being utilised to provide social security pension to pensioners and for the benefit of eligible individuals through various welfare schemes, said officials.

A budget of Rs 12 lakh had been allocated under the Disability Scholarship Scheme, benefiting 114 students, they said, while adding that a sum of Rs 5.75 lakh was provided as relief to victims under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989, for the current financial year.

In the second phase of the Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojana, targets were achieved in 12 out of 14 selected villages, with work progressing in the remaining two, said officials.

Under the state government’s Indira Gandhi Pyari Behna Sukh-Samman Nidhi Yojna, 4,818 applications were received as of March 14, 2024, out of which 4,128 were approved and Rs 1.85 crore disbursed among eligible women, officials added.

Furthermore, 2,318 new applicants had benefited from the Social Security Pension Scheme in the current fiscal. This includes 1,692 beneficiaries under the old age pension scheme, 450 women under the widow pension scheme and 176 individuals who received disability relief pension.