Bhubaneswar: The state government Tuesday said around 3.48 lakh new beneficiaries will be provided assistance under Madhu Babu Pension Yojana (MBPY) scheme in 2018-19 fiscal.
Social Security and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (SSEPD) minister Prafulla Samal informed this to media here while highlighting his department’s achievements in the past four years.
Around 43 lakh people, including destitute old-age persons, widows, differently-abled, and people suffering from diseases like AIDS and leprosy have so far been covered under MBPY. The pension amount under the scheme is `300 per month per beneficiary up to the age of 79 years and `500 for 80 years and above.
While earlier physically challenged children above 5 were eligible for the disability pension, the state government this year January modified norms of the scheme by including even those aged under 5.
“Under the leadership of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik this move will make Odisha a model state in running an effective welfare mechanism for the differently-abled and other vulnerable sections of the society,” Samal said.
The minister said the SSEPD department has identified 6,482 beggars and has launched ‘Sahaya’ scheme for their rehabilitation. “Around 660 beggars have so far been sponsored for skill development training under this scheme,” he said.
The minister said work has been initiated in the districts of Sambalpur, Kandhamal, Khurda, Nabarangpur, Ganjam, Puri and Bhadrak for setting up integrated infrastructure complexes for senior citizens and vulnerable sections.
The complexes will come up in 25 acres of land in the respective headquarters, and will provide homes, vocational training, educational facilities and jobs to the neglected sections of the population such as indigent senior citizens, differently-abled persons, drug addicts, transgender people, beggars, leprosy-affected persons and other groups suffering destitution. These complexes will also come up in all other districts in a phased manner, he said.
Homestead land for all landless by August; another survey begins
Bhubaneswar: The Revenue department has said all identified landless families will be provided with homes by August-end this year.
As per a survey conducted in 2015, as many as 1,10,730 families without homesteads were identified of which 1,07,893 have been provided with land, Revenue and Disaster Management minister Maheswar Mohanty told reporters here Tuesday while highlighting his department’s achievements in the last four years.
He said the remaining 2,837 families will be provided with homestead land by August-end this year.
The minister said a fresh survey has started from Tuesday and will continue till June 2018 to identify more families without homesteads, who were left out earlier, for providing them land for the purpose.
The minister added that disaster resilient houses have also been provided to 16,568 Phailin-affected victims in Ganjam and Khurda, while 879 multi-purpose cyclone/flood shelters have been constructed at vulnerable places.