Wednesday, 29 February 2012
The Rural Development Minister Shri
Jairam Ramesh today said that National Social Assisstance Programme,
NSAP will be completely restructured and all payments under the scheme
will be done through Aadhar-based payment system. Talking to a select
group of media persons here, he said, the restructured system will be in
place by 10th of March this year and it will ensure that each
beneficiary under old age, disabilities and widow pension schemes will
get one’s entitlement every month and there will be no delay in
payments. He said, the Central government spends nearly 8,000 crore
rupees under the NSAP scheme, but the devolvement of funds is being done
in a complicated process in a layered manner, which he said will be
rectified and only one State Agency will be identified for receipt of
funds for final disbursement to pass book holders through Aadhar-based
system.
The Minister informed that he
had already written to the Finance Ministry for relaxation of certain
norms like reducing the criteria for disability to 40% from the existing
80%, which leads to exclusion of a very large number of disabled
persons in rural areas. Moreover, they also face problem in getting a
medical certificate verifying 80% criteria. Shri Ramesh said, presently
the Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension Scheme gives assistance of
Rs-200 per month to BPL widows over the age of 40, which can be modified
to cover widows over the age of 18. There is also a demand to enhance
the amount under National Family Benefit Scheme from Rs-10,000 to
Rs-20,000, which is paid to a BPL family whose main bread-winner dies,
besides inclusion of children/youth in the 5 to 20 age group to get the
disability pension benefit, which is now restricted to those over the
age of 20.
