BHUBANESWAR: Amid growing anxiety among women who have not received financial assistance even after transfer of funds to more than 60 lakh beneficiaries in two phases, the state cabinet on Wednesday approved minor amendments in the guidelines of Subhadra Yojana to expedite the process of beneficiary selection in a more transparent manner.
The cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi approved the proposal of Women and Child Development department to accept the deviations from the exclusion criteria listed in the scheme guidelines with respect to applicants present in National Food Security Act (NFSA)/State Food Security Scheme database.
The decision was taken as per the list of eligible beneficiaries submitted by OCAC after delinking Subhadra portal from Aadhaar e-KYC module from September 8 to 13, 2024 for verification through other database like NFSA and PM-Kisan.
Chief secretary Manoj Ahuja said over one crore people have registered so far and more than 60 lakh applications have been approved. About 2.68 lakh applications have been rejected as they were found ineligible during scrutiny.
He said the state government has received requests from a majority of women whose applications have been rejected for reconsideration. Since the government has promised to ensure that not a single eligible beneficiary is left out of the scheme, they will be given a chance for further verification.
The proposal for inclusion of Central Bank Digital Currency as a mode of providing financial assistance under Subhadra was also approved. Similarly, given the low use of debit cards by people and the greater use of UPI or Aadhaar-based payments, it was decided not to issue debit cards under Subhadra scheme, he added.
In order to make changes to Subhadra Yojana more transparent, it was proposed to include two civil society representatives in the block-level scrutiny committee and urban local body-level scrutiny committee, who will be nominated by the chairpersons of the block/ULB concerned to such committees. The cabinet approved modifications in the guidelines for this purpose.
The appointment of former director, Biju Patnaik State Police Academy Arun Sarangi as chairman of Odisha Public Service Commission was also approved.
