The Punjab Government on Wednesday issued directions to divide the State into different zones to effectively implement the Shagun and scholarship schemes up to the village level. In a comprehensive plan to streamline the implementation of welfare schemes for the Scheduled Castes (SCs), constituting more than 32 pe rcent population of the State, the Welfare Department has decided to put all the zones under a nodal officer who would be accountable for failure, if any, in implementation of the schemes.
“The new implementations have been put into operation after thorough review of schemes and to streamline the delivery system of the schemes,” said the State Welfare Minister Gulzar Singh Ranike. He said one zone each would be carved out as Majha and Doaba and two zones would be carved out of Malwa region. “Each zone would be supervised by a nodal officer, who would be accountable for proper implementation of the Shagun and scholarship schemes,” he said.
Ranike said that all the 22 districts would be covered under these four zones. “The officer of the department has been instructed to devise a comprehensive policy in this regard so that conceived policy could be rolled out at the earliest,” he said. He added that the department would soon initiate a consistent campaign to sensitize the public about various SC welfare schemes. “A series of seminars would also be conducted in the state and Welfare Department Secretary Seema Jain has been asked to prepare a road-map for the seminars,” he said.