HYDERABAD: The state government will undertake field verification for over one crore applications received during the Praja Palana programme recently. The Cabinet sub-committee on Praja Palana met under the chairmanship of Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka at the Secretariat on Friday. IT Minister D Sridhar Babu was among those present.
Vikramarka said that the government received 1.05 crore applications for five guarantees under the Praja Palana while another 19.93 lakh applications were received under other categories. He instructed officials to accord top priority to completion of the data entry process within the stipulated time.
He also directed the officials to formulate an action plan for taking up physical verification during the next meeting. The officials were also asked to carry out exercises in their respective departments for field verification.
Sridhar Babu underscored the need to identify genuine beneficiaries. Referring to reports appearing in a section of the media, he clarified that no bank details were sought from the applicants and no OTP was asked by the officials during the Praja Palana programme.
The minister said that even during the process of data entry, no phone number would be asked from the beneficiary. He said that it was a deliberate attempt by vested interests to misguide and confuse the people. “Do not give any information if any cybercriminals call and ask for OTP. OTPs have got nothing to do with Praja Palana applications,” the IT minister said.
He said that if any applicant receives such calls, then he/she should lodge a complaint with the police.
The members of the committee discussed the modalities for the implementation of five guarantees and how to integrate the data submitted by the applicants with the data available from various departments.
Timelines for completion of data entry along with data analytics and de-duplication exercises were discussed in the meeting. It was also decided that in case of gaps in the data, field verification has to be done.
Special Chief Secretary (Finance) K Ramakrishna Rao, Principal Secretaries Navin Mittal, Sandeep Kumar Sultania, SAM Rizvi, Dana Kishore and Jitender, Civil Supplies Commissioner DS Chauhan, R&B Secretary Srinivas Raju and other officials attended the meeting. The ministers directed the Centre for Good Governance, IT and all other departments to share data and prepare clean data without duplication.
The ministers also alleged that unable to digest the tremendous response from the people to the Praja Palana programme undertaken by the Congress government for implementation of the five guarantees, attempts were being made by some people to politicise even minor niggles. They said that the government would strictly implement all the six guarantees announced by Congress.
Groundwork for 6g implementation
No OTP was sought during the Praja Palana programme and none is to be sought during verification, says Sridhar Babu.
Priority is to be accorded to data entry of applications received.
Ministers direct officials to ensure duplication of data is avoided during the data entry process.