Nellore: The state government has sanctioned Rs 7,78,70,000 for 5,990 orphans in the state at the rate of Rs 13,000 per child, under the Jagananna Ammavodi scheme.
This was done after Deccan Chronicle published a report on the denial of the scheme’s benefits to students living in registered orphanages across the state, on August 31, 2021, and a follow-up done by Nellore Collector, Chakradhar Babu.
One of the reasons that had been cited by DC for not extending the benefits to these students was that the respective orphanage’ name was mentioned in lieu of the mother’s details, in the applications. Moreover, the same name appeared as guardian to all the students in each orphanage. On this basis, the system automatically rejected the applications -- and the officials, in a show of negligence and irresponsibility, failed to take corrective steps on their own.
The DC report had cited this and also mentioned about the plight of the managements running the orphanages without sufficient financial support from the government. The steady rise in prices of essentials added to their plight.
The Jagananna Ammavodi scheme is meant to help children without their parents.
Collector Chakradhar Babu addressed a letter to the principal secretary, School Education Department, in September last year, citing this problem. In it, the collector made a reference to the DC report and stressed the need to extend the Ammavodi benefits to the orphanages. He sent a list of 191 students living in various orphanages in Nellore district.
This will now help all the orphans/orphanages in the state, apart from Nellore region, to avail the benefits of the scheme. The government has asked the district authorities to send the list of students along with the account numbers of the orphanages to transfer the amount under the scheme.
