Bhubaneswar, November 8: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has taken yet another step to ensure benefits of various welfare schemes of the Government reach its eligible beneficiaries in a hassle-free manner.
The State’s largest civic body has engaged specially-trained volunteers called ‘Subidha Sakhi’, a one-of-its-kind initiative to help the urban poor in availing benefits of welfare schemes under the jurisdiction of BMC.
The volunteers engaged for the purpose are chosen from different Mission Shakti Groups. Initially, around 100 volunteers are engaged as Subidha Sakhis and the technical support is being provided by Urban Management Centre, a civil Society organisation.
The primary job of these ‘Subidha Sakhis’ is to mobilize community members and uploading personal details of interested citizens to let them know about various Govt Schemes they are eligible for. By using a special application in their mobile phones, Subidha Sakhis can upload the data in a selected application for which they have undergone training.
In a piloting programme, a camp was help in three zones of the Civic Body where these Subidha Sakhis had mobilized community members into the camps for correction of their Aadhar Cards which is a must to avail the benefits.
The Subidha Sakhis are using technology to maintain a database of eligible beneficiaries and number of welfare schemes spearheading the Odisha Government’s 5T model of governance.
As per the arrangement, the Subidha Sakhis will get honorariums for rending their service for the benefits of the urban poor. The amount varies as per scheme – from Rs 40 to 100.
Laxmikant Sethi, Additional Commissioner, BMC attended the programme at Badagada Kalyan Mandap and asked the newly engaged ‘Subidha Sakhis’ to carry out their job with utmost care and dedication.
