The Karnataka Minorities Development Corporation (KMDC) said that they aim to raise awareness about their schemes for the scheduled castes (SC) and scheduled tribes (ST).
The Karnataka Minister of Social Welfare, Kota Srinivas Poojary launched an awareness programme targeting the 1.8 crore SCs and STs in the state who do not know how to apply for the eight working subsidy schemes of KMDC.
The programme will initially run in the districts of Kolar, Chikkaballapur, Bengaluru Urban and Rural, and Ramanagara till June. Poojary said that the awareness programme will be launched in the other 26 districts in the coming days.
Nagraj Poojar, Director of Information and Technology and e-Governance Cell at the Dr. B.R Ambedkar Development Corporation, said, “We have had these subsidy schemes for years now. The only problem was that we could not connect with the beneficiaries. Therefore, our aim was to conduct this awareness event to directly contact beneficiaries, make them sit and explain to them what these schemes are. Our aim is to make people aware of which scheme they are eligible for and how to utilize it; especially the loan and subsidy component.”
A member of the KMDC, K Suresh Kumar, said that out of the nearly two crore eligible beneficiaries only 12 lakh have availed of the schemes.
The Chairman of KMDC said that only those beneficiaries who know the members of the legislative assembly (MLA) personally could avail the benefits as MLAs are the chairmen of the selection committee.
Now people can apply online through their nearest ‘Grama One’ Centers.
The schemes include the Micro loans with Subsidy Scheme. Laxamamma, one of the beneficiaries said, “I will start sheep rearing business now as I got to know that I don’t have to pay interest for the loans.”
