No ‘gold’ points as marriage assistance scheme aid eludes beneficiaries

At a time when the State government revised the income ceiling to avail welfare schemes, beneficiaries of the Moovalur Ramamirtham Ammaiyar Ninaivu Marriage Assistance Scheme seem to suffer an indefinite wait and be put to hardship to receive their cash component despite the other dole of gold coin already reaching them.

The Social Welfare and Nutritious Meal Programme Department scheme provides an assistance ofRs 25,000 and an eight-gram gold coin to girls hailing from poor families provided they have completed schooling, while Rs 50,000 and an eight-gram gold coin are given to those who have completed their degree/diploma.

However, in practice, beneficiaries receive the gold coin but not the accompanying cash component which takes at least another four to six months to reach them, official sources said.

Valarmathi of Poigai Mottur near Vellore was given the eight-gram gold coin on February 4, 2019, but till date has not received the cash amount despite running from pillar to post. When she approached the Social Welfare department in the District Collector’s office, she was asked to check with the Anaicut Block Development Office where she claims was asked to “donate” Rs 5000 for expeditious service.

Although she mentions having handed over Rs 3000, she is yet to get the financial assistance as promised by the government. When she approached the Collector’s office again, she said she was asked to submit her bank statement to ensure that she was not cheating. Despite having submitted the same for the period asked for, she still did not get the cash assistance.

The Social Welfare department then told Valarmathi to go to the Treasury where she said she was shooed away by the staff telling that they could not spare time to search for the records of one person.

When asked about the issue, District Collector A Shanmuga Sundaram said, “There is usually a gap of four to five months between the gold coin and the cash component reaching the beneficiary. Only now are beneficiaries who received the gold coin in 2018 being given their cash assistance. So it will reach her, but belatedly.”

However, enquiries in Tiruvannamalai pointed that helping beneficiaries avail the full benefits of the scheme depended on the district head. Collector KS Kandasamy said, “Over the years, we have helped more than 600 cases of this scheme’s beneficiaries by allotting special staff to handle their cases.” Asked about the gap between the receipt of the gold coin and cash as part of the scheme, Kandasamy said, “Even if the beneficiary gets one digit of her bank account wrong, it goes to a different account and the person languishes there as the bank manager has no knowledge of this. We have to specifically track this down. Also, as most beneficiaries open zero balance accounts for this specific purpose, the bank puts the account on hold when it is not operated for more than a month.”

Top official sources said a special team is necessary to iron out such glitches in the welfare scheme till the government ensures that both the coin and cash component are provided together. The Vellore Social Welfare department office refused to attend calls.