Over 6,500 poor girls benefitted under ‘State Marriage Assistance Scheme’ in Jammu and Kashmir
Srinagar, December 7: Over 6,500 beneficiaries are benefitted in Jammu and Kashmir till 31st of August this year under the State Marriage Assistance Scheme (SMAS). Notably, the State Marriage Assistance Scheme (SMAS) was launched in 2015 with an aim to facilitate poor girls with requisite financial support to enable them to solemnize their marriages.
Under this scheme, the poor girls living below the poverty line get the one-time financial assistance of Rs 25,000 and five gram gold from the state's Social Welfare Department (SWD) for their marriage. Since the year 2015 until 31st of August this year, around 6589 beneficiaries are benefitted under this scheme.
However, the Jammu and Kashmir government on Wednesday revised the timelines to ensure speedy implementation of the State Marriage Assistance Scheme. The official spokesperson said that the government issued a circular, in a modification to its earlier version, detailing the revised timelines as per the directions of the high court in the matter.
The spokesperson said, according to the revised timelines, a period of three working days has been fixed for district social welfare officer, six working days for sanctioning authority (Deputy Commissioner) while five working days have been fixed for director finance, social welfare department to dispose of the cases under the SMAS.
“The government has also issued strict directions to all the concerned officials for ensuring strict adherence to the revised guidelines and, according to the circular, any deviation in this regard would be dealt strictly as per the Law,” the official spokesperson added.
Importantly, the important norm of availing benefit under the State Marriage Assistance Scheme includes that the prospective beneficiary girl should be above 18 years of age and identified as poor in the survey list available with the concerned district development commissioners and district social welfare officers.