PANAJI
The State government's scheme to provide aid of up to Rs 2.5 lakh per month for various heads of expenditure to palliative care hospices went onstream on Tuesday with Chief Minister Pramod Sawant handing over an order to the management of the first beneficiary: DILASA of Ponda.
The scheme being implemented through the Social Welfare Department is meant to assist such organisations financially to help them defray expenses of their institutions which care for terminally ill senior citizens whose families cannot handle the requirements at home.
Social Welfare Minister Subhash Phaldesai said such organisations who run hospices that take care of people with diseases like cancer, alzheimer's and dementia must have a minimum of 20 patients to be eligible.
"Also the organisation must be a legal entity and registered under the Societies Act," Phaldesai said.
"It is an initiative by our government to ensure that the incentive will encourage more such centres to be set up by social organisations and NGOs so that the needs of such unfortunate persons whose families find it difficult to manage at home are met," Phaldesai said.
The scheme was announced by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant in his budget speech last year and on Tuesday the government issued the first order committing the Rs 2.5 lakh per month assistance to DILASA in Ponda.
