Showing posts with label SCHEMES. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SCHEMES. Show all posts

Monday, March 19, 2012

DEPB Scheme

Government has withdrawn DEPB Scheme with effect from 1.10.2011. It was decided that revised duty drawback rates are extended to items which were in the DEPB Scheme. The Duty Drawback Scheme, which was announced for the year 2011-12 on 20.9.2011 (effective from 1.10.2011) has 1096 new items. The Scheme was earlier extended for a further period of 3 months from 30.6.2011, i.e., upto 30.9.2011 so as to facilitate a smooth transition once the DEPB Scheme is phased out. Government has received requests from various industries for extension of DEPB Scheme. The decision to phase out DEPB has not been reconsidered.

MGNREGS under RSBY

The Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), providing for smart card based cashless health insurance cover of Rs. 30000/- per annum per family ( a unit of five) to BPL families in the unorganized sector, has been extended to such Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) beneficiaries who have worked more than 15 days during the preceding financial year.

The premium is shared between Central and State Government in the ratio of 75:25 and in case of States in North Eastern Region and Jammu & Kashmir, the ratio of sharing of premium is 90:10. The beneficiaries are required to pay registration/ renewal fee of Rs. 30 per annum only.

The numbers of beneficiaries under RSBY, Health insurance scheme for handloom weavers, Rajiv Gandhi Shilpi Swasthaya Bima Yojana (RGSSBY) for handicraft artisans, Universal Health Insurance Scheme (UHIS) are at Annexure- I to IV respectively.

The RSBY has also been extended to building and other construction workers registered under the Building and other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Condition of Service) Act, 1996 and street vendors, beedi workers and domestic workers. It is the endeavour of the Government to extend RSBY to other occupational groups in the unorganized sector in a phased manner.

This information was given by Minister of Labour and Employment Shri Mallikarjun Kharge in reply in reply to a written question a)whether the Government is planning to bring Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) workers under Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY); if so, the details thereof; the premium, required to be paid by the workers under the revised scheme; the number of workers from unorganised sectors benefited from various health insurance schemes so far during the last three years, State-wise including Uttarakhand; and whether there is any proposal to provide health insurance to all citizens for basic health under the scheme; and the steps taken by the Government to cover more such workers under the RSBY

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Centre launches two new schemes for rural poor from Kerala

The centre has launched two new rural development schemes from the Thrissur district of Kerala aimed at helping the women working in farm sector through the intervention and integration of other such schemes. The second scheme launched from Thrissur and Malapuram districts is rechristened as new PURA( Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas), which is aimed at creating physical infrastructure in rural areas of the country in the Public-Private Partnership mode. Launching both the schemes, the Union Minister of Rural Development Sh Jairam Ramesh said here that the government is embarking on a very important journey by launching the two national projects, whose results will be visible to the common man in the coming three to four years. The first project called Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Yojana has two components with a budgetary provision of Rs 80 crore each and is designed for improving the economic status of about three lakh women workers in the state of Kerala. The scheme will be launched in the entire country based on the feedbacks as is being done in the case of Kutumbshri scheme, which is highly successful in Kerala and other states are demanding for replicating the same self-help group model. Responding to the queries of the Kerala Chief Minister that timing for MGNREGA scheme for women workers should be fixed from 9.AM to 4. PM, Shri Ramesh assured that the Centre will seriously look into the matter as the women have other family responsibilities also. He also informed the Chief Minister, present on the occasion that dairy related works will be included in the MGNREGA from 1st of April this year as an expert committee has recommended the same in this regard. It is pertinent to mention here that women constitute more than 90 percent of the all MGNREGA workers in the state.

Launching the PURA project from the Thrissur and Malapuram districts of Kerala, the Rural Development Minister said this is different from the PURA conceived by the former President Dr A.P.J.Abdul Kalam, as the new project deals with water supply, sanitation and improvement of roads as key focus areas and is not related to the Knowledge connectivity idea of Dr Kalam. Moreover, under this all central government schemes will be integrated under the Gram Panchayat as nodal agency and there will be Public-private partnership between the Central Government, State Government and the private players to build and improve upon the physical infrastructure. Shri Ramesh said, initially there will be eight PURA projects in the country which can be extended to 500 centres known as census towns (semi-urban & semi-rural) as the latest census talks about over 3500 such areas in the country.

Integrated Low Cost Sanitation Scheme

Integrated Low Cost Sanitation (ILCS) Scheme started with the objective of eradicating all dry latrines and thereby liberating manual scavengers from inhuman practice of carrying night soil. The scheme also has provision for construction of new latrines for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) households who have no latrine facility.

Sanctions have been made and funds have been released for conversion of all reported dry latrines to the States. Out of the funds available for construction of sanitary latrines to Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) households, funds have been fully committed and projects sanctioned for construction of 1,70,337 new latrines and States have reported that work is in progress.

ILCS scheme is in its final year of implementation and the mandate of the scheme was conversion of dry latrines which has been fully achieved with total sanction of projects for conversion of all dry latrines reported by State Governments.