The Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today reviewed the progress of pro-poor welfare schemes by personally talking to the beneficiaries in order to seek their genuine feedback on one hand and get the first hand information about their implementation of these schemes on the other.Disclosing this here today, a spokesperson of the Chief Minister’s Office said that Mr. Badal during a series of review meetings called up randomly several beneficiaries of social welfare schemes at his residence this morning.For instance, an old woman was surprised when the Chief Minister called her from his official residence and said’ “Hello, Bibi Ji I am Parkash Singh Badal calling, are you getting old age pension in time”. Expressing gratitude to Mr. Badal, the woman replied affirmatively saying she is extremely delighted to get her monthly pension on time without any hassles. Subsequently, the Chief Minister also called up a construction worker and enquired about getting the card of Bhagat Puran Singh Sehat Beema Yojna.
The labourer informed the Chief Minister that the concerned department has given him the card well in time. Likewise, Mr. Badal also called up several other beneficiaries of such schemes randomly to enquire about the status of these schemes. During their conversation with the Chief Minister, the beneficiaries reposed complete trust and confidence in these social security initiatives.The Chief Minister also directed the concerned Secretaries and Heads of the Departments to often call up these beneficiaries to get their grievances redressed promptly, if any to their utmost satisfaction besides keeping a complete track in this regard. He also sought feedback from the concerned officers to ensure that the fruits of these welfare programmes and schemes must percolate at the grass roots level.
Reviewing the pro-poor welfare schemes, the Chief Minister asked the officer to ensure speedy disposal of the grievances related to such schemes especially those lodged on 24x7 help lines as it was the most effective way to redress the complaints of beneficiaries. Citing the example of Bhagat Puran Singh Sehat Beema Yojna the Chief Minister said that around 1 lakh 28 thousand people have contacted the help line number 104 of this scheme out of which around 1 lakh 26 thousand people have enquired about the scheme whereas nearly 558 people have lodged their complaints. Mr. Badal said that he frequently interacts with the beneficiaries of such pro-people schemes during the Sangat Darshan so that people could be immensely benefitted from it.