Shimla: Chief Minister Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, while presiding over a meeting of the Social Justice and Empowerment Department directed not to stop the social security pension of any eligible individuals. He said that all the eligible beneficiaries would continue to receive their pensions and asked the department to complete all the codal formalities of remaining eligible social security pensioners to ensure that no deserving beneficiary was deprived of their rights. He said that e-KYC of 7,60,772 has been completed so far and emphasized that all eligible individuals must be covered without exception.
Sukhu also reviewed Mukhya Mantri Sukh Aashray Yojna and said that 4131 children of the state were currently receiving the benefits under the scheme and the state government has allocated Rs. 30.69 crore to ensure its effective implementation. He instructed to conduct exposure and recreational visits of such children on the regular basis and sought the report from the districts that have not yet conducted any tour for such children.
The Chief Minister said that there was no dearth of money and assured that every eligible individual shall receive its rights. He said that the state government has made the provision to utilize 10 percent of the Local Area Development Fund for the welfare of orphan children. He said that to extend financial and educational support to the children of widows, destitute or divorced women and parents with disabilities, the state government has introduced Indira Gandhi Sukh Shiksha Yojna and there were 21588 beneficiaries across the state out of which 20735 were upto the age of 18 years. He said that the state government has allocated Rs. 31.01 crore under the scheme.
Sukhu said that the state government would allocate sufficient funds for these welfare schemes in the future also. Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Dr. (Col.) Dhani Ram Shandil, Additional Chief Secretary Shyam Bhagat Negi, Principal Secretary Devesh Kumar, Secretaries to Chief Minister Rakesh Kanwar and Ashish Singhmar, Director ESOMSA Sumit Kimta, Director Women and Child Development Pankaj Lalit and other senior officers also attended the meeting.
