Chandigarh, April 28- Haryana Chief Minister, Mr. Manohar Lal said that Information Technology (IT) initiatives undertaken by the state government, have played a pivotal role in enabling assistance and procurement services during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said that the state government has issued Distress Ration Tokens through e-PDS to the people in distress who would be provided free ration for three months.
This information was given by Mr. Manohar Lal here today during a video conferencing chaired by Union Minister for Electronics, Information Technology and Communications, Mr. Ravi Shankar Prasad from New Delhi with the Chief Ministers, IT Ministers and Secretaries of all the states.
He informed that the Parivar Pehchan Patra (PPP) program being run by the Haryana government is a state-wide program under which all benefits, services and schemes provided by the government can be linked. The program was launched last year with a database of over 32 lakh families and a golden database of 12.5 lakh families has been prepared so far.
The Chief Minister said that the "Mukhyamantri Parivar Samridhi Yojana" is a unique scheme in the state, where the eligible beneficiaries, on the basis of criteria of landholding and annual income of Rs 1.80 lakh, receive a benefit of Rs 6,000 per annum. Under this, premium of various insurance and pension schemes of the Government of India like Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Kisan Mandhan Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Mandhan Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana is contributed by the Government. The benefit amount is directly transferred to the beneficiary account through DBT. The program facilitated the government in providing financial assistance to those likely to be affected by the national lockdown.
He apprised the Union Minister through video conferencing that the state government had launched the "Meri Fasal Mera Byora" (MFMB) program two years ago and it integrates with the land records and enables the farmer to register the crop sown by him on each individual parcel of land owned or cultivated by him. He said that this program creates the record for procurement of crop yield, which has enabled the government to send a message to every farmer during the COVID-19 pandemic informing them regarding their turn for purchase. Thus this program has proved to be extremely useful during the present crisis. He said that about 12 lakh farmers have got themselves registered under the "Meri Fasal Mera Byora" program.
Giving information about the program initiated to make the villages of the state Lal Dora free, Mr. Manohar Lal informed the Union Minister that the state government considered a mechanism for mapping using remote sensing, drones and GIS techniques. Furthermore, the scheme is presently being implemented in full swing across the state by the government departments with the support of the Survey of India. He also informed the Union Minister that "he is proud to say that on the occasion of Panchayati Raj Day on April 24, 2020, "Swamitva" scheme, due to begin in six states as per the announcement of Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi, is in a way already being implemented by the IT Department of Haryana Government.
He said that to maintain social distancing due to COVID-19, the Haryana government started programs like "bank slot booking" and "cash delivery" under cashless schemes. He informed that the program was started on April 21, 2020 and by April 27, 3,000 people have registered themselves under this program and around 1,200 people have benefitted from this facility till now. Similarly, like the Zoom app, NIC, Haryana created the NIC-Video Linking Program, which is a secure app and it has been developed for government only.
The Chief Minister said that the state government has also started the "COVID Sangarsh Senani" program in which more than 80,000 volunteers have registered to serve. Similarly, more than 76,000 grocery and chemist shop owners have registered online to deliver goods to the residences of people and to open shops. At the same time, the state government has also created "Corona Relief Fund", in which citizens of the state including pensioners, employees and volunteers etc, have also contributed to this fund. He said that the students of schools have also been requested to contribute at least Rs 5 to this fund so that the needy can be helped and farmers were also called upon to contribute some part of the income. He said that in this way, an amount of Rs 200 crore has been collected in this fund so far.
Mr. Manohar Lal informed that the Haryana Government has recently launched "Jan Sahayak Help-Me" app on 25th April, 2020 which has been developed while considering the needs of people. This app is a platform for the people to avail of the facility of ration, LPG gas, shelter home facility, ambulance facility, facility of issuing pass, banking facility, facility of doctor, crops, etc. have been provided. He said that more than 50,000 people have downloaded this app so far and are getting benefitted from it. Similarly, e-learning facility, Shiksha Setu app and My-friend app etc. have also been introduced for the convenience of the people.
Giving assurance to the Union Minister, he said that best practices as communicated by the Central or State Governments in this meeting, the Haryana Government will consider implementing them so that people can get all facilities during COVID-19 pandemic.
On this occasion, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Mr. Rajesh Khullar, Additional Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Mr. V. Umashankar, Additional Chief Secretary of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department, Mr. P.K. Das, Principal Secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology, Mr. Ankur Gupta and other senior officials were present.