Panaji: The directorate of women and child development will strike off the names of 50,000 beneficiaries of Griha Aadhar by the end of May, if they do not comply with notices issued to them to submit their life and income certificates. The department issued notices to those who did not submit life and income certificates for several months. Govt has given them time until the end of May to submit the necessary life and income certificates.“All beneficiaries have to submit their yearly income and life certificates before May 31, otherwise their disbursement will be kept on hold as per Griha Aadhar scheme guidelines. All beneficiaries are sent reminders via SMS. Cases of 50,000 women have been kept on hold as they have not submitted the certificates for several months ,” said the director of women and child development, Jyoti Desai.Depending on the life and income certificates received, govt will decide whether the beneficiaries are genuine and if they fit the required criteria or not.Desai stated, “If beneficiaries have expired and the amounts are lying in their bank accounts, this is a loss to the state treasury, and a process will be initiated to recover the amounts.”Launched in 2016, the scheme provides monthly assistance to homemakers from middle, lower-middle and poor sections of society to protect them from inflation and help them maintain a reasonable standard of living for their families. The married women category also includes a widow and a divorcee.While applying for the scheme, the women must sign a self-declaration form, stating that their husband is not a govt servant. The scheme is available to any married woman above the age of 18 and has been a resident of Goa for the past 15 years.The gross income of the husband and wife together must not exceed Rs 3 lakh per annum. A widow with a child shall be eligible under the scheme,even though she is a beneficiary of social welfare department’s DSSS till she turns 18.
