Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Aug 7 : Endorsing the need for supporting the widows of those killed in militancy related incidents to get the benefit of pension, Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah on Tuesday said that the recommendation made by State Rehabilitation Council (SRC) in this regard should be concretized positively. He asked for chipping in all concerned in formulating the operational module to help the coverage of uncovered widows under the SRC pension scheme.
Chairing the 6th meeting of Governing Council of State Rehabilitation Council here this morning, the Chief Minister emphasized on extending benefits of social welfare schemes to all deserving categories to help their rehabilitation.
The Chief Minister said that State Rehabilitation Council should also chalk out a strategy of providing skill upgradation training to the militancy affected destitute, orphans and widows to open vistas of job opportunities for them. He said that SRC and Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI) should jointly look into this area and come up with a befitting programme to target these categories.
In a PowerPoint presentation, Commissioner Secretary Social Welfare Jeet Lal presented overview of the achievements registered by the J&K State Rehabilitation Council of Social Welfare Department in implementing various schemes aimed at welfare and rehabilitation of widows, orphans and needy. He said that Rs 3.35 crore pension has been provided to 3840 widows at the rate of Rs 750 per month in 2010-11. He said that old age pension of Rs 2 crore was given to 2292 elderly persons in the same year.
The meeting discussed the action taken report on the decisions of previous Governing Council meeting. It discussed extension of benefits of schemes of Rehabilitation Council to the widows of killed militants and wives and children of missing persons. The meeting also discussed audit report and by-laws of the Council.
Minister for Social Welfare, Sakina Itoo, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, B. B. Vyas, Secretary National Foundation for Communal Harmony, Lalit Kumar, Executive Director J&K State Rehabilitation Council, Hafiza Muzaffar, Honorary Secretary Red Cross Society, Feroz Ahmad, , Director Centre for Human Studies, University of Jammu, Poonam Dawan, Head of Department of Social Work University of Kashmir, Peerzada Mohammad Amin, Dr. G. Q. Allaqband, Zahoor Ahmad Tak, Nusarat Begum, President Federation Chamber and various senior officers were present in the meeting.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
