Minister denies diversion of Central funds

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, MARCH 3. The Minister for Panchayat Raj, Mr.P.Srinivas Reddy, denied the Opposition charge that the funds made available by the Centre for the National Family Benefit Scheme were diverted for other purposes and that identified beneficiaries were harassed by revenue officials.

Facing a volley of supplementaries to a question tabled by Mrs N. Rajya Lakshmi (Cong.), he said so far about 1.78 persons had been extended the monetary benefit under the scheme since its introduction in 1995-96. An amount of Rs 1.58 crores had been released by the Government of India for the scheme till now.

The Minister explained that the benefit of Rs 10,000 under the scheme was available to families in the event of natural death of earning members in the age group of 18-64 years, provided they belonged to the Below Poverty Line (BPL) category. The fund is released under a formula worked out by the Centre. It was a cent per cent Centrally-sponsored scheme.

Dr.M.V. Mysoora Reddy (Cong.) cited instances of how beneficiaries were made to run from pillar to post and part with huge bribes to MROs to secure the monetary benefit. K. Surekha(Congress) alleged diversion of funds for other schemes.

The Panchayat Raj Minister was also grilled by the Congress members over other issue -- the delay in filling of Assistant Executive Engineer Posts -- during question hour.

He contended that the Government was unable to go through the process of filling the posts as the matter was sub judice. An aggrieved candidate, Mr. Srirama Rao, filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court.

Mr.G. Chinna Reddy (Congress) said out of the 397 vacancies of assistant engineers/assistant executive engineers notified by the Government, 241 candidates were selected by the Public Service Commission. But the appointment orders had not given to them by the Government for the last two years. They staged a number of protest demonstrations. The aggrieved engineers moved the court as the Government was delaying the recruitment inordinately.

The Leader of the Opposition, Dr.Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, said his party would prevail on the engineers to withdraw petition in the court if the Government assures appointment orders to the selected candidates. Mr.D.S. Redya Naik (Cong.) said work in the rural areas was hit due to shortage of engineers.

The Minister pleaded helplessness in taking any initiative till the petition was disposed of by the Supreme Court. The Congress members strongly protested against the attitude of the Minister.

User charges

The Minister for Medical and Health, Dr.S. Aruna, defended collection of ``user charges'' in Government hospitals from patients as the money thus collected was being ploughed back for improving the facilities in these institutions. She said the white card-holders are exempt from payment of user charges. Thus the poor and needy were not being denied basic medical care.

Members complained that even white card-holders were not being spared the levy.

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Section  : Southern States
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