BHUBANESWAR : Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to celebrate his 74th birthday by fulfilling a major promise made to the women of Odisha by the BJP during the general elections.
On a day-long visit to the state, Modi will launch the eagerly awaited Subhadra Yojana at a grand ceremony held in Janata Maidan here on Tuesday.
The Subhadra Yojana was among the top promises under “Modi’s Guarantee for Odisha” in the BJP manifesto. The scheme aims at providing one crore women in the age group of 21 to 60 years with a cash assistance of Rs 50,000. The BJP government in the state has announced to disburse the amount in two equal instalments of Rs 5,000 annually, over a period of five years.
The prime minister will initiate the fund transfer on Tuesday and the first instalment of `5,000 will be credited to the accounts of more than 10 lakh beneficiaries. He is scheduled to interact with some selected beneficiaries on the occasion.
With over 60 lakh women stated to have registered under the scheme, the state government has conducted a test transaction by crediting Rs 1 to the beneficiary accounts. However, a significant chunk of the registered women are yet to receive the token money.
Deputy chief minister Pravati Parida, who is also the minister for Women and Child Development and Mission Shakti, however, clarified that all eligible beneficiaries will be covered under the scheme. “We have conducted a trial run by crediting Rs 1 to the accounts of registered beneficiaries to check the efficacy of the system. Those who did not receive the token amount are under verification and will get the first instalment in subsequent phases,” Parida said.
She advised beneficiaries not to fall prey to cyber frauds, who have become active, by avoiding suspicious links on the scheme sent to their mobile phones.
The prime minister will also launch a slew of projects during his visit to the state. He is scheduled to lay foundation stones and dedicate railway projects worth Rs 2,800 crore and national highway projects worth Rs 1,000 crore through virtual mode.
He will also release the first instalment of financial assistance under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G) to approximately 13 lakh beneficiaries across 14 states. As many as 26 lakh PMAY (Gramin and Urban) beneficiaries will celebrate Griha Pravesh during this occasion. Modi will hand over the keys of the houses to the new homeowners under the central scheme.
He will also launch the Awaas+ 2024 App for survey of additional households for PMAY-G. Further, he will unveil the operational guidelines for the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U) 2.0 from Bhubaneswar.