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| Chief Minister wants poverty removed; his govt is removing the poor | | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Sept 19- State Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has equated the service to poor with service to God. He said Monday in summer capital Srinagar that the Social Welfare Department must mitigate the difficulties of poor and needy by implementing the schemes aimed at their amelioration with a missionary zeal. That is a wonderful statement and definitely one that should have been made and emphasized by the Chief Minister, but unfortunately, the assertion does not move beyond words.
The Chief Minister said that in the process of fulfillment of social promises of the Government, the Social Welfare Department has a pivotal role to play and ensure benefits of schemes reach to the poor and deserving universally in the State. He, however, did not say anything about the misappropriations, favoritism, ministerial interference and a hundred other reasons for the state social welfare department doing everything except social service.
Reviewing the progress of flagship programmes under implementation in the State in social welfare sector at a high level meeting here this morning, the Chief Minister said that the success of flagship programmes lie in ensuring advantages of these schemes to the poor and helping them to improve their living standards. The Chief Minister did not speak of the colossal failures the department has met in implementation of its various flagship programmes.
Omar Abdullah said that comprehensive development of downtrodden and those living below poverty line is the primary concern of his Government. He said measures aimed at pulling them above poverty line and alleviating their social conditions need to be implemented with a commitment and public service. In alleviating the lot of the poor and the needy, the social welfare department does nothing except charge bribes from the widows for sanctioning destitute pensions in their favour.
The meeting was attended by Minister for Social Welfare, Sakina Itoo, Minister of State for Social Welfare, Ajaz Ahmad Khan, Advisor to the Chief Minister, Mubarak Gul and senior officers from Social Welfare Department.
The Chief Minister was briefed about the progress made under National Social Assistance Programme, Integrated Child Development Services, Indira Gandhi National Old-Age Pension, National Widow Pension, Disability Pension and National Family Benefit Schemes under implementation in the State with the Central assistance. The briefing did not say anything about the hundreds of complaints received daily which are either burnt or simply torn and thrown out of the office windows.
Underscoring the importance of flagship programmes to bring about a healthy change in the social conditions of poor and needy, the Chief Minister highlighted the role of Panchayats in the implementation and monitoring of these schemes to ensure benefits to the targeted population. The Chief Minister asked the department to involve Panchayats pro-actively in the flagship and other programmes being implemented by the department in the State. “Identification of BPL families, monitoring of old-age pension, functioning of Anganwari centres and other schemes could be successfully carried forward by active involvement of Panchayat Members”, he stressed.
Did anyone tell the Chief Minister that there is tremendous resistance from the ruling party MLAs against devolution of powers to the Panchayats? How can the elected Sarpanches and Panches become part of the grassroots level governance when officials slap them out of their offices?
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