Hyderabad: Lakhs of applications to avail welfare schemes and other benefits are piled up with various departments with no clarity over when the government would extend these benefits.
The government invited applications from people for welfare schemes and to resolve their grievances over the past one year for which over 40 lakh applications were received.
Applicants, who are facing severe hardships unable to avail these benefits due to inordinate delay in processing and approval of applications, are running around government offices to know the status of their applications.
The state government invited applications for Aasara pensions in August 2021 after reducing the upper age limit from 65 years to 57. It received 10.5 lakh applications online through Mee Seva centres. Besides, three lakh applicants aged above 65 years also submitted applications. Although the ministers have been giving statements every month since then that all these applicants would get pensions from the first of subsequent month, nothing happened. All these 13.5 lakh applications have been pending till date.
The state government invited applications to resolve land-related issues on Dharani portal. Over five lakh applications were received seeking corrections in Dharani portal with regard to errors in name, land extent, missing survey numbers, non-issuance of pattadar passbooks etc.
While these five lakh applications remain pending, the government invited applications again from May 1 to correct errors in Dharani land records.
Applications were also invited from persons from backward classes, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and minorities to avail subsidised self employment schemes. Over 5.2 lakh applications from BCs, 1.20 lakh applications from STs and 2 lakh applications from SCs remain pending.
The government invited applications to regularise government lands which are under the possession of people from poorer sections for free up to 125 sq. yards under GO 58 and regularise government lands for others by collecting basic value of the land under GO 59 for which 1.68 lakh applications were received. All these are pending.
The government also invited applications from people in possession of podu lands (forest lands) to accord them rights to undertake agriculture for which over 2.50 lakh applications were received. All these lie pending with the state government.
Similarly, the state government invited applications for new ration cards for which 5.60 lakh applications were received and remain pending. For the sheep distribution scheme, 7.29 lakh applications were received, of which 3.65 lakh were cleared and 3.62 lakh remain pending.
The fund crunch being faced by the state government is cited as reasons for huge pendency of applications. The welfare budget already increased three fold from Rs 30,000 crore in 2014 to over Rs 90,000 crore in 2022. Despite this, the welfare schemes were facing severe fund crunch.
