Women with an annual family income of less than ₹2.5 lakh; family land holding not exceeding 5 acres (wetland) and 10 acres (dryland); and annual household electricity consumption below 3,600 units would be eligible to avail themselves of a monthly aid of ₹1,000 in Tamil Nadu.
These form the crux of the operational guidelines released by the State government on Friday for the implementation of ‘Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thogai’, a major Assembly poll promise of the ruling DMK.
The scheme has been touted as the first-of-its-kind programme in the country, and named after former Chief Minister Karunanidhi.
It is to be launched on September 15, the birth anniversary of former Chief Minister Annadurai.
Women, who have completed 21 years of age (born before September 15, 2002) are eligible to apply for the scheme. Applications could be made only in the ration shop where the family card is attached to. Only one woman member in a ration card is eligible to apply. “There is no need to attach proof for economical eligibility such as income certificate or land documents,” official sources said, adding that all names in a ration/family card would be considered as a single family, and the woman head in every eligible family could apply.
“Women who are mentioned in the ration card as the head of the family will be considered as the woman head. In cases where a man is mentioned as the head of the family, his wife would be considered as the woman head,” an official said. Families headed by unmarried single women, destitutes and transpersons will also be considered woman head of the family. In cases where there are multiple women in the family aged over 21, one of them could be selected by the family to apply for the scheme.
Ineligible for scheme
Women with an annual family income exceeding ₹2.5 lakh and who are income tax assessees; those with more than ₹2.5 lakh annual income and paying professional tax; employees of Central and State governments, public sector undertakings, banks, boards, local bodies and cooperative societies and their pensioners are ineligible for the scheme.
Elected representatives (excluding village panchayat ward members), those having four-wheelers such as cars, jeeps, tractors and heavy vehicles for personal use are also ineligible. “Families that are receiving aid from social security programmes such as old-age pension, widow pension, pension from the welfare board for the unorganised sector are not eligible,” according to the guidelines. However, families that receive maintenance allowance, provided by the Department for the Welfare of Differently-Abled Persons, are eligible to apply for the scheme, subject to the other guidelines.
On Friday, Chief Minister M.K. Stalin chaired a meeting of Collectors at the Secretariat in Chennai and instructed them to ensure that not a single eligible beneficiary was left out.
About 1.5 crore applications are expected to be received under the scheme, he said. The Chief Minister instructed them to organise special camps in every ration shop to receive application forms.
If the people from the marginalised sections of society do not possess ration card, Aadhaar card or other documents, the Chief Minister said, “Ensure that they get these documents and help them get this aid.
Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin, Chief Secretary Shiv Das Meena and senior officials participated in the meeting. The government had, in the Budget, said that women heads of families who have been “affected adversely by the steep increase in cooking gas price by the Union government and the overall price rise” would be greatly benefited by this scheme.
A sum of ₹7,000 crore has been allotted in the Budget for this scheme.Meanwhile, a senior official told The Hindu that a schedule for implementing the scheme would be released by respective District Collector, and Commissioner of Greater Chennai Corporation in case of the State capital.
Based on the number of applications received, availability of government officials and biometric equipment, a schedule with two to three phases could be chalked out for receucing and registering the applications, the official said.
A task force team in every district headed by the respective District Collector would coordinate all efforts in the implementation of the Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thogai scheme.
