PANAJI
The State government has begun releasing payments to beneficiaries of its various social welfare and other schemes, many of who were not paid benefits for up to five months.
Part payments of the backlog were cleared on Monday and the amounts were credited directly to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries, finance department sources said.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had in early September promised to clear all the backlog payments of the beneficiaries under the State government's Griha Aadhar and other schemes which are administered by the Social Welfare Department as well as Women and Child Development.
Sawant had said, that the payments will be made directly to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries by September 15, ahead of the Ganesh Chathurti festival.
Finance department sources, meanwhile, said that not all the payments have been made but almost every beneficiary must have received some of the accumulated backlog that was due to them.
Earlier last week, Sawant had also distributed 'sanction letters' to a thousand new beneficiaries of the Griha Aadhar scheme.
The direct cash benefit schemes across multiple departments, according to the finance department sources, involve some three lakh beneficiaries.
The Dayanand Social Security Scheme (DSSS) alone had payments pending to the tune of nearly Rs 60 crore unpaid to the beneficiaries for up to three-four months, the finance official said.
There are approximately 1.40 lakh beneficiaries under the DSSS scheme which entitles each to Rs 2,000 payment per month.
Some beneficiaries meanwhile confirmed that part of the cash benefits of the past months have been credited to their accounts.
