PANAJI
Minister for Archives and Archaeology Subhash Phaldesai on Thursday assured in the Assembly that the digitisation process of old land records and other archival documents would begin within 3 months, adding that the entire process may be completed in about three years.
“The department will take up the digitisation of 4.5-6 crore pages of archival documents, some of which dates back to 1595,” said Phaldesai.
"If land ownership related documents were digitised before this, land grabbing cases would have been avoided.”
“The modus operandi of land grabbers largely revolves around manipulating these old documents. These documents are in different languages such as Portuguese, Persian, Modi, etc.,” he added.
Stating that around Rs 10 crore has been assigned for the work for the current year, the minister said he is hopeful of additional funds.
Phaldesai also informed that the government has identified 51 sites of archaeological importance.
SOCIAL WELFARE
Social Welfare Minister Subhash Phaldesai said the social welfare department had cleared a backlog of over 14,104 pre and post matric scholarship applications in the last three months.
“The State spends Rs 28-29 crore every month to give financial aid to 1.3 lakh DSSS beneficiaries and 2,287 new beneficiaries have been added to the 1,34,530 beneficiaries,” said Phaldessai.
He also informed that of the 2,365 applications received for Covid ex-gratia, 2,142 applications have been sanctioned and money has been disbursed to 1,251 beneficiaries.
“Rs 25 crore has been spent in this regard,” he informed the House.
