PANAJI
More than 40,000 male applicants who have submitted forms under Goa’s Ujjwala scheme will also be considered for financial assistance, with Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Friday appealing to women from the same families not to submit fresh applications.
The government had initially asked women beneficiaries to reapply for the scheme. However, the issue of inconvenience to beneficiaries arising from multiple applications was discussed during a Cabinet meeting, following which the government decided to consider applications submitted by male members of the family as well, Sawant said. “I appeal to wives or females from those families where the male has applied not to reapply. During the Cabinet meeting it was brought to our notice that refilling of the forms would cause inconvenience to people. Hence, we decided to consider male applicants too,” Sawant said.
Over 2.5 lakh applications have so far been received under the scheme, while nearly one lakh beneficiaries have already received the financial assistance.
Sawant said the male applications would undergo proper scrutiny to ensure that there is no double disbursement to members of the same family. The Civil Supplies Department has also been directed to ensure that eligible applications submitted by male applicants are not rejected merely on that account. The next round of payments is expected to be disbursed by Wednesday, the Chief Minister said.
The scheme, launched by the State government on September 5, provides financial assistance of Rs 3,000 towards the purchase of three LPG cylinders.
Sawant also said the Ujjwala scheme would continue next year.
