Chandigarh: Haryana has launched a major grassroots exercise to make identification of eligible beneficiaries more accurate, transparent and people-centric, with Chief Secretary Anurag Rastogi chairing a high-level meeting to review the rollout of the Gram Sabha Module for verification of rural families.
The initiative places the Gram Sabha at the centre of the verification process, bringing government welfare data closer to the ground and giving village communities a direct role in establishing the actual status of families. The exercise is aimed at ensuring that government assistance and welfare benefits are directed to deserving households on the basis of verified field-level information.
The exercise follows a decision to verify pending cases through Gram Sabhas after approximately 1.66 lakh families requiring income verification were identified. Subsequently, the scope was strengthened to include rural families with annual income below Rs 1.8 lakh, with such cases being placed before the respective Gram Sabhas for determination of the appropriate income range.
The government has simultaneously created a robust supervisory mechanism to maintain the quality of the exercise. CEOs of Zila Parishads, ADCs, Gazetted Officers, CRID officials and Gram Sachivs have been assigned specific responsibilities.
