Ahead of the launch of the Mukh Mantri Mawan Dheeyan Satkar Yojana on April 13, long queues of women were seen at sewa kendras in Mohali on Saturday.
The much-delayed scheme, which promises a monthly assistance of Rs 1,000 to general category women and Rs 1,500 to women from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, will be launched across the state from April 13.
General category women beneficiaries will have to furnish a Punjab-based Aadhar card, while Scheduled Caste category women are eligible for the Rs 1500 benefit, but they need to establish their SC category certificate with the registration form to become eligible for it.
At the only Sewa Kendra in Banur, women start lining up as early as 7 am, two hours before the token distribution starts at 9 am. Many women’s husbands or sons stand in queues to get the token. Eligible women themselves come later to submit the form and get the certificate issued.
As many as 40 to 50 women are reaching the Sewa Kendra at Banur every day to get their caste certificate. The processing fee for the certificate is Rs 70, and it takes around 15 days to get the certificate made as the documents are verified at various levels, officials said.
According to the notification issued on April 2, it is mandatory for women belonging to the SC and ST categories to produce their caste certificates to avail enhanced benefits.
Visitors at Sewa Kendra are facing inconvenience due to overcrowding.
“If earlier it took an hour to get the task done, now it is taking several hours more to submit the online form. The government should make arrangements for making certificates at the village level through the sarpanch and numberdar,” said a visitor.
