‘Scheme to empower women socially & economically’

AJMER: Fifty years old Sampati Devi of Masuda village was happy when chief minister Vasundhra Raje on Monday handed her the Bhamashah biometric card with her name inscribed on it. Raje today distributed the first card of this scheme from Ajmer with the assurance to complete this yojna in the coming year.
Sampati belongs to a down-trodden family and was happy to know that without her will no one can withdraw her money from bank and also without the card no one could get ration from the rationing shop of the village.Many women like Ladd Devi, Manju and others got this card from the chief minister at Patel Madian. Raje also inaugurated the new cardiothoracic unit at JLN medical College, new premises of government law college at Jaipur road and new premises of dumb and deaf school by clicking a button from the programme.
Addressing the gathering on this occasion, Raje said that this Bhamashah card scheme will provide dignity to women not only in their family but also in society, “The benefit of this programme is to give financial inclusion and confidence to women so that they could come in the mainstream and walk shoulder to shoulder with men in both social and economical aspects,” said Raje.
She added that this Bhamashah card will also bring transparency in the ration distribution system and only those who have the card could get the rationed grains, sugar and kerosene. “Rajasthan is the first state in the country to have made women independent with the multi-purpose card so that they not only get a bank account but also have funds in different schemes transferred directly in their account. This one card will serve many purposes for a family,” said Raje.
Briefing the idea of this scheme Raje said that she took the initiative of this programme in her last tenure but that time there were hurdles as no banks were coming forward to support this. She appreciated Punjab National Bank for coming forward at that time to start this programme in Rajasthan.
Chief minister also described the target of this scheme and said the card will work as an alternative of Aadhar Card. The government is depositing two thousand rupees in every bank account opened under this scheme and will also provide benefits of different schemes of the Centre and state government. “Like central government, the state government is also planning a health insurance for Bhamashah card holders from Rs 30,000-3 lakh plus one lakh rupees in case of accident and this will be announced later when the plan will be ready,” further said the chief minister.
Raje also explained the democratic system of the state and said that the rule of state government is by the people and for the people and they are sitting to serve the people. “If anyone has any problem then before going for agitation they should come to the government. If problem is not solved at once then they should approach twice. By discussion the problem can be solved because we are on the chair to serve public,” said Raje.
Taking up the issue of Congress, Raje said that they accused us but do not come up with the actual problem. “Congress is spreading rumours that the state government is closing the free medicine scheme, Which is not true, the state government has increased the budget of free medicine distribution scheme. This scheme was started in 2003 by BJP government and Congress took it over,” added Raje.
She said that taking a step ahead in women empowerment the small saving groups have prepared women hand-pump mechanics in Ajmer so that that women could also come forward with confidence and work equally with men. She also took the issue of Ajmer transforming into smart city and said this was the reason she had started the distribution of Bhamashah cards from this city to give a message to the world that women here are preparing to become competent. The programme was organized by the directorate of economics and statistics of state government.