The launch of the application process for one of the much-awaited guarantees, Gruha Lakshmi — which promises a monthly financial assistance of ₹2,000 for the women head in the family — is likely to be delayed by a few more days.
In a flip-flop on Thursday, while Women and Child Development Minister Laxmi Hebbalkar announced in the morning that the scheme’s application launch would be on Friday, she retracted the statement a few hours later informing that the launch of applications would be delayed by “four to five days”.
“We have to have a smooth launch of the scheme that will also provide convenience to women to apply. The delay is only to make the scheme people-friendly as senior Ministers and officials felt that the existing infrastructure could create a rush physically at the centres,” Ms. Hebbalkar told presspersons during the post-Cabinet briefing here on Thursday. She said that as many as 1.28 crore beneficiaries were expected to apply for the benefits. “On average, we found that it would take about four to seven minutes to complete an application form.”
To ensure convenience, she said that about 6,000 Bapuji Seva Kendras at the gram panchayat will also be roped in to register the beneficiaries, and the training of personnel would take a couple of days. The personnel in about 7,000 GramaOne centres were trained on Wednesday. “The E-governance Department is developing an app also to help beneficiaries register. This app could be used by volunteers with a social service bent of mind and who can help register beneficiaries through the app. This will also reduce the rush at the centres,” Ms. Hebbalkar said.
According to her, the ealier launch date had been fixed based on the feedback given by the E-governnace Department over the development of the app. “The department came back with the advice that it required about six days time to develop it. Besides, the personnel at Bapuji Seva Kendra also need to be trained.”
