GUWAHATI, July 1: The Assam Governor has, pursuant to the recent approval of the state Cabinet, notified the guidelines for implementation of the ‘Chief Minister’s COVID-19 Widows Support’ under the chief minister’s secretariat.
The state government has initiated a scheme to provide one-time financial assistance of Rs 2.50 lakh to widows who lost their husbands due to COVID-19 to help them tide over immediate financial crises.
The scheme will cover widows whose husbands died of COVID-19 in the first and second waves as well as who may die of COVID-19 in future.
“The beneficiary should be a permanent resident of a district of Assam and must belong to a low-income family having an annual income below Rs 5 lakh,” the guidelines stated.
The guidelines also stated that the beneficiary’s husband must have died with COVID positive status at the time of his death as certified by the state-level COVID death audit board.
“Beneficiaries of the ‘Orunudoi’ and ‘Widow Pension’ scheme or any other government scheme are also eligible to get the benefit of this scheme,” it stated.
Serving or retired government employees or widows of serving or retired government employees are not eligible under the scheme.
“The beneficiary must not have entered into marriage again after the demise of her husband at the time of receipt of the one-time aid,” it stated.
In regard to implementation, the deputy commissioner shall compile the list of eligible beneficiaries from the National Health Mission (NHM) database of COVID victims and verify whether the beneficiary is eligible for the financial assistance as per the eligibility criteria.
The deputy commissioner, after being satisfied with the authenticity of the beneficiary, shall upload the name and particulars of the beneficiary in the CM’s portal https://cmcovidsupport.assam.gov.in with a certificate.
On receipt of the list of beneficiaries from the respective deputy commissioners, the chief minister’s office shall disburse a sum of Rs 2.50 lakh from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund by direct benefit transfer (DBT) to the eligible beneficiaries after obtaining approval of the competent authority with intimation to the deputy commissioner concerned.
Any person of the opinion that she is eligible for the benefit under the scheme but has not been included in the list of beneficiaries, can submit a representation with supporting documents to the deputy commissioner concerned, who will either accept or reject giving reasons, with intimation to the applicant and chief minister’s secretariat.