By Sumit Kumar Singh
Published: 08th December 2014 06:00 AM
Last Updated: 07th December 2014 10:57 PM
NEW DELHI: Spotting irregularities in the implementation of Central schemes and policies here, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has sought status reports from the city administration on projects linked to Aadhaar. The PMO has also sought details of the total number of beneficiaries of various schemes in Delhi.
“All the people subscribing to social sector schemes must be in possession of Aadhaar cards before February 2015. The PMO has sought details of the statuses of schemes linked with the Aadhaar cards so far in Delhi,” an IAS officer said. An estimated 36 lakh people avail benefits of schemes under the National Food Security Act. All eligible beneficiaries will be covered under the Food Security Scheme, however, the projects have not been linked to Aadhaar yet.
The city administration is in the process of linking Ration and BPL cards with the Aadhaar numbers in Delhi.
Only 25 percent of the city’s senior citizens avail provisions of the Old Age Pension Scheme of the Social Welfare Department. A pension of Rs 1,000 per month is given to those in the age group of 60 to 69 years and Rs 1,500 to those above 70 years. Elderly belonging to the SC/ST category get an additional Rs 500.
Delhi has 14 lakh senior citizens. The Social Welfare Department provides pensions to 3.88 lakh elderly people and the MCD covers another 1.9 lakh elderly people. The city administration also gives pension 48,000 differently-abled persons and 1.3 lakh widows under the Old Age, Widow and Disability Pension Scheme, but these schemes are not linked to the Aadhaar numbers yet.