Central assistance reaching beneficiaries without hindrance: Nirmala Sitharaman
The Hindu
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman inaugurates 'Vikasit Bharat Sankalp Yatra' to take Union government's development projects to citizens without discrimination.
Assistance from the Union government has been reaching actual beneficiaries without any hindrance for the past 10 years, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said.
She was speaking after inaugurating the ‘Vikasit Bharat Sankalp Yatra’ launched to take the Union government’s development projects to the people at Mangalapuram panchayat in the district on Saturday.
Ms. Sitharaman said scheme benefits were reaching the people in a transparent manner without a single allegation of corruption. The Vikasit Bharat Sankalp Yatra was aimed at taking development schemes to all citizens of the country without any discrimination.
The vans that created awareness about the development schemes through information, education, and communication were about to cover 2.55 lakh grama panchayats. It would also reached 3,600 urban local bodies.
Ms. Sitharaman said the idea of development put forward by the country should be imbibed by everyone, and everyone should contribute in the journey to make India a developed nation by 2047.
She shared details of development projects announced by the Union government and numbers that shed light on the State’s share in projects such as PM Ujjwala Yojana, MUDRA loan, and PM SVANidhi. She said benefits to the tune of ₹91,200 crore had been distributed to 1.4 crore beneficiaries in the State through MUDRA loan alone. In Thiruvananthapuram, benefits to the tune of ₹11,500 crore had been distributed to 16.3 lakh people, she said.
The Union Minister handed over cheques to beneficiaries of various projects and gas stoves to beneficiaries of the Ujjwala Yojana at the programme. The beneficiaries shared their experience of the development projects at the programme. A pledge to reaffirm commitment to the development of the nation was taken.
Several principals of government and private schools in Delhi on Tuesday said the Directorate of Education (DoE) circular from a day earlier, directing schools to conduct classes in ‘hybrid’ mode, had caused confusion regarding day-to-day operations as they did not know how many students would return to school from Wednesday and how would teachers instruct in two modes — online and in person — at once. The DoE circular on Monday had also stated that the option to “exercise online mode of education, wherever available, shall vest with the students and their guardians”. Several schoolteachers also expressed confusion regarding the DoE order. A government schoolteacher said he was unsure of how to cope with the resumption of physical classes, given that the order directing government offices to ensure that 50% of the employees work from home is still in place. On Monday, the Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) had, on the orders of the Supreme Court, directed schools in Delhi-NCR to shift classes to the hybrid mode, following which the DoE had issued the circular. The court had urged the Centre’s pollution watchdog to consider restarting physical classes due to many students missing out on the mid-day meals and lacking the necessary means to attend classes online. The CAQM had, on November 20, asked schools in Delhi-NCR to shift to the online mode of teaching.