The Telangana Government’s efforts to recognise and register the beneficiaries for its six flagship programmes received tremendous response with over 1.05 crore applications submitted by the aspirants.
The applications were received through ‘Praja Palana’ an outreach programme of the government that ended on January 6. Thousands of applications received were not related to the schemes but people sought ration cards and also solutions to the land issues.
As per the figures revealed by the officials, a total of 1,25,84,383 applications were submitted across the State in rural and urban areas. Among these, 1,05,91,636 applications were related to the five guarantees given by the Congress party before the elections while the remaining 19.92 lakhs were related to other issues.
As many as 1,11,46,293 households were covered during the outreach programme, which was held in 12,769 gram panchayats and 3,623 municipal wards from December 28 to January 6.
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There was a single application for five schemes — Mahalakshmi, Rythu Bharosa, Gruha Jyothi, Indiramma Indlu and Cheyutha. The 6th guarantee is related to ‘Yuva Vikasam’ and the applications for these will be received from the aspirants in educational institutions.
Sonia Gandhi released the six guarantees assurance at a massive public meeting held in the city right after the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting before the elections. As per the guarantees, under the ‘Mahalaxmi’ scheme every woman will get financial assistance of ₹2,500 per month and cooking gas cylinder at ₹500.
In the Rythu Bharosa scheme (earlier known as Rythu Bandhu) every farmer is promised ₹15,000 per acre in two agricultural seasons every year while the agricultural labourers have also been assured ₹12,000 per annum.
Under the ‘Indiramma Indlu’ scheme, financial assistance would be provided to those who don’t own homes for the construction of houses. The Congress also promised 250 square yards of house sites for the families of Telangana martyrs and those who participated in the Telangana movement. Another promise was 200 units of free electricity every month under Gruha Jyothi scheme.
Enhancement of monthly pension to ₹4,000 was promised to beneficiaries under various categories like old age, widows, single women while the physically challenged would get ₹6,000 every month under Cheyutha scheme.
Under the ‘Yuva Vikasam’ scheme, Congress promised a ‘Vidya Bharosa’ Card worth ₹5 lakh each for students and Telangana international schools in all mandal headquarters.
Despite the government’s clarification that the existing beneficiaries of Rythu Bandhu and pension schemes need not apply again people went ahead and submitted the applications.
Officials said that ‘Praja Palana’ will be conducted once in four months and those who could not submit their applications now can apply later.
Recording the data is now on
Officials will now start entering the data received through applications and complete it by January 17. Care is being taken to ensure that there are no errors in entering the data from the submitted forms.
Two poll promises already launched
The Congress party promised to implement all six guarantees within 100 days of its governance and it launched two schemes within 10 days. The free bus travel for women was launched on the second day after taking charge and immediately insurance under Arogyasri scheme was enhanced to ₹10 lakh.
