‘Bidaai Scheme runs aground in district’

MLC Ivan D’Souza has said that 2,123 applications seeking grant of Rs 50,000 under the Bidaai scheme are pending with the district Minorities Welfare Department.

D’Souza said on Monday that a majority of the applications – more than 2,011 – are from Muslims.

Reviewing the progress of schemes for minorities implemented by the Minorities Welfare Department and the Karnataka Minorities Development Corporation at the Abdul Kalam Azad building, he told reporters, “Under the Bidaai Scheme for financial assistance, poor minority women, divorcees and widows from the Muslim, Christian, Jain and Buddhist communities received Rs 50,000 at the time of their marriages. The applications are pending since a year and the beneficiaries have not received the money.”

‘Rs 10.5 cr more needed’

D’Souza said that Department needs an additional Rs 10.5 crore in order to clear the pending applications. He also promised to urge the government not to fix a quota for schemes like ‘Vidyasiri’ (Rs 15,000 scholarship for students deprived of hostel facility) and ‘Shramashakthi’ (employment scheme), which are very popular in the district.

“As many as 7,814 applications were received for the ‘Vidyasiri’ scheme and the money was released only to 1,900 beneficiaries. The ‘Shramashakthi’ scheme has attracted 28,990 applications – which is the highest in the state. Yet, only 314 applicants are beneficiaries of the scheme,” said the MLC and added, “The Department needs an additional allocation of Rs 100 crore.”

Mad rush at centre

Earlier in the day, Ivan D’Souza witnessed the chaos at the centre to issue property cards.

He told reporters that skeletal staff with inadequate infrastructure had been finding it hard to meet the demands of the public. In order to minimise the inconvenience to the people, D’Souza promised to discuss the issue on relaxing the norms to issue property cards with Revenue Minister R V Deshpande.