The Tamil Nadu government is developing a software that will enable individuals to submit their appeals directly under the Kalaignar Mahalir Urimai Thittam in the event of rejection instead of going to e-sevai centres, which is the present arrangement.
Disclosing this, a senior government official hopes that the work would be completed in a few days. Responding to concerns over the necessity of visiting e-sevai centres, the official indicated that certain decisions had been taken for the time being given the “enormity” of the exercise and a “huge” number of applicants.
“Technology has its own problems,” the official observed, adding that all issues would be “resolved satisfactorily” in 15 days.
Of the 1.63 crore applications received under the scheme, around 1.06 crore were found to be eligible. Each beneficiary gets ₹1,000 a month.
As of now, those whose applications have not been accepted can make an appeal within 30 days of receipt of an SMS through the e-sevai centres. The appeal would be scrutinised within 30 days.
Revenue Divisional Officers would function as the appellate authority and the appeals filed online would be verified with the data available with the government. If necessary, authorities would carry out a field visit.
On the question of holding special camps to redress grievances of applicants, the official felt there was no need for them as e-sevai centres, taluk offices and Mudalvarin Mugavarihelpdesks could take care of the grievances.
Among the rejected applicants are those who have been covered under the pension plan of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation. They question why they should be clubbed with those drawing government pension as their scheme of pension is essentially contributory. To this, the official responded that some time was needed to address such issues.
Asked whether there would be new enrolment of applicants once the current phase of work is over as, after all, new ration cards [which play a major role in determination of beneficiaries] are issued as a matter of routine, the official said: “New applications will be received after some time, the date for which will be informed later. The priority now is to sort out the appeals.”
