Tripura govt to expand social security benefits to 5458 more beneficiaries next month

Agartala: Tripura govt has announced to expand social security benefits to an additional 5,458 people next month, besides the existing 3.90 lakh beneficiaries under 34 schemes, including three central-sponsored programmes.Social welfare minister Tinku Roy said 2,20,517 people are currently getting monthly pensions of Rs 2,000 each under state schemes and 28,809 are covered under the Chief Minister's Social Assistance Scheme, in addition to 1,40,675 beneficiaries of central schemes."A sizable number of beneficiaries were scrapped from the benefit during verification of credentials as they had been given social pensions by the then Left Front govt, considering their political loyalty," Roy said. He added that the new inclusions are being done with utmost sincerity to ensure that only genuine people get benefits.Highlighting the success of the social security schemes, Roy said 3.90 lakh poor people are getting benefits from 34 such schemes, including the National Family Benefit Scheme (NFBS). Under this scheme, in case of death of the main earning member of an Antyodaya category, that family is given Rs 20,000 as assistance.He added that the department has taken up a scheme to assist the patients afflicted with cancer. As part of this, 3476 cancer patients are being given monthly assistance of Rs 2,000 per head, and this will be expanded further.To ensure timely payment of social pension among the cancer patients, the Tripura govt on Thursday set up a new help desk at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Regional Cancer Centre in Agartala. The cancer patients, except the govt employees and those having an annual income of over Rs 1.5 lakh, are eligible for the pension.The help desk would expedite the completion of documentation and enrollment procedures for the new social pension applicants within a month, to avoid harassment of patients and delays in pension disbursement.