Wednesday, 07 July 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
The State administration has marked about 2,000 children across Uttarakhand who are eligible to get benefits under Mukhyamantri Vatsalya Yojana (MVY). Under this scheme, all the districts have identified about 966 girls and 1,013 boys as the beneficiaries who have lost one or both parents or the sole earning member of their family to Covid-19. As per the officials, the procedure to verify the eligibility of these identified beneficiaries has been almost completed. As per the data provided by the officials, the number of beneficiaries below the age of 18 years is quite high than the beneficiaries aged from 18 to 21 years old. There are about 1,800 beneficiaries who fall under the category of beneficiaries less than 18 years old while there are only 180 beneficiaries in the 18 to 21 years category. It was also revealed by the officials that over 1,852 children lost a single parent while 127 children lost both parents to Covid-19 since March 2020 across the State.
Among 13 districts, Dehradun, Udham Singh Nagar and Haridwar are the top three districts with the maximum number of identified beneficiaries while Chamoli, Pithoragarh and Rudraprayag are the districts with the least number of beneficiaries identified under the scheme. The officials disclosed that Dehradun, Udham Singh Nagar and Haridwar districts have identified about 560, 242 and 223 beneficiaries respectively whereas only about 38, 47 and 48 beneficiaries have been identified in Chamoli, Pithoragarh and Rudraprayag districts respectively since the last month. According to the officials, every beneficiary, who lost single parent or both parents before July 2021, will get the benefits under MVY from July 1. Under this scheme, the beneficiaries would be provided with free education, ration and health facilities besides monthly monetary support of Rs 3,000 each till the age of 21 years.
The officials informed that the beneficiaries need to open a joint bank account with the guardian so that both can be held accountable for the money they would receive from the State government under this scheme. To ensure that the beneficiaries are getting all the benefits under the scheme, the officials said that the district administration will be responsible to check on the children regularly and review their condition to ascertain whether they are living with a parent or guardian.
