Odisha Govt To Engage ‘Bank Mitras’ To Resolve Suhbadra Scheme Issues

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government is set to engage ‘bank mitras’ to resolve problems faced by applicants for Subhadra Yojana in linking mobile phone and Aadhaar numbers and making their accounts DBT-enabled.

As per information, the Women and Child Development department is reportedly unable to process around 7.68 lakh applications for release of assistance under the scheme due to non-compliance, procedural and technical issues and delay in field verification.

While the scheme achieved a milestone of releasing Subhadra money for 80.45 lakh beneficiaries so far, around 5.6 lakh verified applications are pending for release of assistance as they are either not DBT-enabled or not properly linked to the mobile and Aadhaar number of the respective applicants.

This apart, reverification of 2.08 lakh applications, which were rejected over land area, family owning a four-wheeler or a family member being a government employee is yet to be completed.

According to Deputy Chief Minister Pravati Parida, ‘bank mitras’ will help over five lakh applicants resolve the issues with their bank accounts. “The bank mitras attached to bank branches for helping SHGs will now facilitate Subhadra applicants to resolve their issues. Banks have also been asked to sort out procedural issues, if any, as soon as possible,” Parida was quoted by TNIE as saying.

While the state government had assured to reverify 2.67 lakh applications rejected earlier on a war-footing with the help of revenue inspectors, only 22 per cent (58,740 women beneficiaries) of them have been reverified so far and received the assistance.

Some applications were rejected only because the government data shows them owners of more than five acres of irrigated land and paddy has been sold in their name in mandis despite the fact that they do not own the land. The verification is taking time and it expected to be completed by next month, she said.

Over 80 lakh women beneficiaries have received more than Rs 4,000 crore financial assistance as part of the first installment under the largest only-women welfare scheme, she said, adding that the number of selected applicants stood at 1.04 crore after preliminary verification of applications received so far.