Conducting fresh survey

20/03/2018

There is no end to the dilly-dallying approach on the part of Social Welfare Department in conducting fresh survey to bring thousands of left-out deserving poor girls under the purview of much-talked about State Marriage Assistance Scheme despite fixing of timelines by the State Government and explicit orders from the highest court of the State.On the directions of the State High Court, the State Marriage Assistance Scheme was launched by the PDP-BJP Coalition Government Vide Cabinet Decision No.164/13/2015 dated December 2, 2015. The scheme was accorded for implementation Vide Government Order No.248-Social Welfare of 2015 dated December 8, 2015 in all the districts of the State. The State Marriage Assistance Scheme (SMAS) for poor girls is a social assistance scheme meant for those un-married identified girls of Jammu and Kashmir living below the poverty line who may not find themselves in a position to marry due to financial constraint. Under this scheme, all the marriageable identified poor girls are entitled to receive one-time financial assistance of Rs 25000 and cost of five grams of gold for marriage purpose. Initially, such girls were identified by the Government through District Development Commissioners (DDCs) and brought under the purview of the social assistance scheme. However, with the passage of time it was felt that large number of deserving poor girls remained out of the purview of the scheme.
Accordingly, in the year 2016 the Division Bench of the State High Court headed by Chief Justice directed the Government to conduct fresh survey of such girls and decide the marriage assistance applications and disburse the amount to the beneficiary within a week's time on the receipt of application otherwise scheme would not serve any purpose. Finally, the Government Vide Order No.33-Social Welfare of 2017 dated January 31, 2017 directed all the District Social Welfare Officers to conduct a fresh survey to include left out deserving girls in the scheme. However, this exercise has not been completed by the District Social Welfare Officers till date despite lapse of over one year. During the just concluded Budget Session of the State Legislature the Government had stated that survey was almost complete and fresh lists would be issued shortly so as to bring more deserving girls under the ambit of the scheme in shortest possible time. All this clearly establishes that survey which was ordered more than one year back has yet not been completed by the Social Welfare Department and it was not difficult for the District Social Welfare Officers to complete the assigned task in the shortest possible time and only slackness is responsible for the prevailing situation.

Share This Story


Comment On This Story

 

Photo Gallery

  
BSE Sensex
NSE Nifty