CHANDIGARH: The Captain Amarinder Singh led Punjab Government on Tuesday released Rs 183 crore for disbursement of social security pensions, Rs. 296 crore for MGNREGA related payments and Rs 89 crore towards the second instalment of the special assistance announced for construction workers to tide over the COVID-19 exigency.
The social security pension amount will benefit nearly 24.69 lakh beneficiaries including elderly, widow and disabled, according to an official spokesperson.
Of the Rs 296 crore released by the Finance Department under MGNREGA, Rs 71 crore would be spent on material and the remaining Rs 225 crore would be paid as wages to 1.30 lakh workers. Notably, the wage rate of MGNREGA workers has recently been increased from Rs. 241 to Rs. 263 for the current fiscal to provide enhanced benefits rural job card holders.
The sum of Rs 89 crore has been sanctioned for the Labour Department for disbursement of financial assistance @ Rs 3000 each to about 2.98 lakh registered construction workers, said the spokesperson. Notably, the Labour Department has earlier transferred around Rs 86 crores through DBT in the bank accounts of nearly 2.86 lacs construction workers registered with the Punjab Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board on March 22.
It may be recalled that in the light of the COVID-restrictions, the State Government had decided to distribute social security pensions and benefits to the beneficiaries in villages through business correspondents to the extent possible.
The State Government has also approached the Department of Posts, which provides the facility of disbursement of social security benefits through India Post Payments Bank (IPPB). With Aadhaar Enabled Payment Service (AEPS) provided by IPPB, any bank account holder can withdraw amount upto Rs. 10, 000 at a time through 4639 post offices across Punjab. The Deputy Commissioners have been asked to get in touch with the officers of Department of Post in their districts for disbursement of benefits through IPPB.