NEW DELHI: The Delhi government has decided to form a committee in order to monitor various state-run schemes of its social welfare department in all 70 Assembly constituencies. According to officials in the social welfare department, the committee will be first of its kind, for which a notification is expected soon. “The prime motive behind the committee is for better monitoring of the schemes. Many a time, we get complaints from the public about the benefits not reaching or maybe they are delayed. This panel will help in plugging that hole. The representations from almost all the MLAs has reached us. We will notify it soon,” social welfare minister Rajendra Pal Gautam told this newspaper.
The committee will have representation from all the MLAs in 70 constituencies along with department officials. The social welfare department, which has one of the biggest budget components among all the departments, on its own sponsors around eight government schemes for the welfare of the widows, elderly, children and socially marginalised communities.
“The current system is so archaic that it needs human intervention at every point. This committee will look into many issues that takes time to solve such as pension and others about which the officials are not aware of. I have sent our representation for the committee to help in bridging the gap between the people and the officials,” said Somnath Bharti, AAP MLA from Malviya Nagar.
However, an activist highlighted that doubts itself remain about the implementation of various schemes. “Making committees does not mean that it will make situation on the ground any better. People are suffering many hardships due to wrong implementation of the schemes such as pension. On the health front, the government has failed the people who have little hope left from the government,” said activist Ashok Aggarwal.
Incidentally, the government has an online portal, Public Grievances Monitoring System, for the people to lodge their complaints regarding inadequate or poor service delivery by government agencies.
