The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : A slow starter picks up pace

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Saturday, Mar 08, 2008
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A slow starter picks up pace

Special Correspondent

Bhagyalakshmi scheme may be extended for one more year

Bangalore: The Bhagyalakshmi insurance scheme for girl children, introduced in the 2006 budget as the flagship scheme of the Janata Dal (Secular)-Bharatiya Janata Party Government, was slow in taking off. But since August 2007 the progress in identification of beneficiaries has picked up pace.

The scheme might, in fact, be extended by another year in the coming budget if a proposal sent to the Government by the Women and Child Development Department comes through. While the scheme comes to a close by the end of March, the department has suggested extension by a year followed by an evaluation of its successes and hurdles by an external agency.

The first hurdle for the implementation of Bhagyalakshmi scheme in the year of its announcement was the confusion and delay in disbursement of Below Poverty Line (BPL) cards, which was then the criterion for availing the scheme.

This resulted in not a single beneficiary being identified, though an allocation of Rs. 234 crore was made for the year and a target set to identify two lakh eligible girl children.

A sum of Rs. 166 crore from this was transferred to a trust in 2007. Instead of BPL cards, income certificates were introduced as valid proof of eligibility. Following this, according to the department’s figures, as many as 1.71 lakh were identified for the scheme.

An allocation of Rs. 225 crore was made in the 2007-08 budget and 98,000 beneficiaries were identified for the scheme. A total of 2.12 lakh bonds have been disbursed by Life Insurance Corporation of India.

Department officials say that the scheme has seen great response, though a difficult area has been identifying beneficiaries of migrant families, who have difficulty in producing income and address proof certificates.

Tracking children

The department, in the meanwhile, has asked the National Informatics Centre (NIC) to design a portal that tracks all beneficiaries of the scheme thorough all the 18 years of the period for which they are covered under the scheme.

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