Maya invokes controversial survey to justify cash dole scheme

First reported by The Indian Express,at least 50 per cent beneficiaries of the scheme — “UP Mukhyamantri Mahamaya Garib Arthik Madad Yojna” — will be families belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

Under the scheme,a woman will be named the head of the family,and the government will deposit the money twice a year in the bank accounts of the beneficiaries.

The government plans to identify 30 lakh families to avail of the benefit in the first phase of the scheme that will be launched in the next financial year. The implementation will cost Rs 1,100 crore — 50 per cent of which will be channelised through the Centre’s special component plan,and the remaining will be borne by the state government.

While announcing the scheme,Mayawati said the 2007-08 survey for identifying people living below the poverty line revealed that a large number of poor families had not been issued BPL cards and were,therefore,denied the benefit of anti-poverty programmes like Antyodaya.

“The Centre was requested to revise the number of people under BPL in UP,but to no avail. So the state government had to come to the rescue of the poor,” Mayawati said to justify the need for launching the new scheme.

“The Uttar Pradesh government has launched this scheme from its own limited resources to cover those poor people who were not able to avail of the benefits from the existing schemes,” she added.

The 2007-08 survey had caused a political controversy with allegations that names of poor people belonging to other castes were being deleted and instead names of Dalits were being included.

Mayawati,however,said the beneficiaries of the new scheme would be selected through a transparent process at the village panchayat level and their names would be made public for inviting claims and objections from people.

A special cell is being constituted at the CM’s secretariat to monitor the selection process and also the progress of the implementation of the scheme at the state level,she said.