Goa Affairs
Only Rs 16 crore of Rs 608.4 crore plan spent by Panaji Smart City
Marred by delay in allocation of funds and faulty prioritisation of projects, the Centres ambitiousSmart City Missionappears to have floundered in Goa. Five years afterPanajiwas put on the fast track to smartness on the basis of a Rs 608.4 crore planned outlay, theUnion ministry of housing and urban affairs(MoHUA) said that just Rs 16.2 crore has been spent till date on 10 projects, most of them being beautification works.
The Centre also said that seven big ticket projects worth Rs 330 crore are about to be awarded to contractors while two projects worth Rs 40 crore are likely to be tendered in the coming weeks. The information was given by the minister of state Kaushal Kishore in a written reply inRajya Sabha.
As per the MoHUA website, Goa has transferred Rs 113 crore to IPSCDL till date as its share towards the Smart City Mission.
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It was constituted under the Chairpersonship of Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment.
The council look after the implementation of the Policy and advise the Government to formulate and implement policy and programmes for senior citizens.
NCOP was reconstituted in 2012 to encourage more participation from every region. Council was renamed as National Council of Senior Citizens (NCSrC).
Third meeting of the Council was held in June, 2018.
Issues like Schemes, Programmes and Act were discussed in the meeting for the welfare of Senior Citizens.
Status or action taken by the Government is listed below:
Council suggested to strengthen the Amendments to the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens (MWPSC) Act, 2007. Following it, government introduced Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens (Amendment) Bill, 2019 in the Lok Sabha.
Council suggested to organise more distribution camps under Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana (RYY). Based on this, Department of Social Justice and Empowerment revised RVY to cover all the districts across country.
Council also advised to simplify the process of registration of NGOs following which, Department of Social Justice and Empowerment has been running a simplified Online NGO portal called e-Anudaan.
It suggests to provide financial assistance to senior citizens who are cancer patients from Senior Citizens Welfare Fund (SCWF). In line with the suggestion, government is providing financial assistance of up to Rs 2 lakh under Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi (RAN) scheme.