Schemes for paper mill staff�s children, NHM contractual employees announced

GUWAHATI, Jan 9 - The State government today announced two new schemes, including a one-time incentive or scholarship for children of the employees of HPCL�s Cachar and Nagaon paper mills.

The government also issued the notification for a scheme providing healthcare reimbursement to contractual National Health Mission (NHM) employees.

Addressing the media here, Minister for Finance and Health & Family Welfare Himanta Biswa Sarma said children of around 700 employees of the Panchgram and Jagiroad paper mills, who were working there at the time when the units stopped operating, will be able to avail benefits of the scholarship scheme.

Under it, the State government will offer a one-time incentive of Rs 1 lakh each to children of the mill employees who are pursuing medical, engineering or other similar professional courses either at any institute in Assam or outside the State.

For students who are currently pursuing post-graduate degrees or research work, the scholarship amount will be Rs 75,000, while for those in graduation courses, polytechnic and diploma courses it will be Rs 50,000.

For the employees� children who are pursuing higher secondary or similar courses, the scholarship amount will be Rs 25,000, while children from classes I to X will receive a one-time assistance of Rs 10,000 each.

The scholarship will be disbursed �student-wise� and not family-wise. So, if any mill employee has more than one kid pursuing any of the mentioned courses, all of them will receive the benefit as per their individual course of enrolment.

The money for the scheme will come from the finance department�s exclusive funds.

�As per preliminary estimate the expenditure on the scheme will be around Rs 5 crore. However, the final figure will be known only after we receive the applications,� said Sarma.

Eligible students will be able to get the application forms from the finance department�s web portal from January 14. They can submit the applications between January 14 and 20.

The deputy commissioners of the respective districts will verify the applications between January 21 and 30.

�The beneficiaries will receive the scholarship amount in their bank account under the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) model by the first week of February... The students concerned do not need to submit any documents along with their applications. They just need to mention the name of the courses they are enrolled in and provide details of their parents,� Sarma said.

He, however, clarified that the scheme will not cover children of retired employees of the two paper mills.

Sarma said the State government has no say in the operation of the paper mills, adding that Industry and Commerce Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary has already clarified that the employees will not have to vacate their quarters.

�The State government has for a long time been supplying power to the quarters of employees of both units. So far we have not collected any tariff for the electricity supplied. The unpaid electricity dues will amount to several crore rupees. But neither have we tried to recover the bills nor have we disconnected power supply because we do not want to inconvenience the employees and their families,� said Sarma.

The minister also announced the launch of a new interest subsidy scheme for State government employees who are divyang or differently able.

�There are many employees of the State government who are divyang. Under the new scheme, the State government will henceforth bear four per cent interest of any bank loans that such employees may take to purchase any four-wheeler or two-wheeler. Divyang people need specially customised vehicles and the new scheme will benefit such employees,� said Sarma.

The State government today also notified a Healthcare Reimbursement Scheme for contractual NHM employees which had been announced a few months back.

The scheme has been notified with effect from January 1 this year. Under it, contractual NHM employees will receive reimbursement of up to Rs 5 lakh a year for availing treatment and hospitalisation.

The scheme will benefit around 50,000 contractual NHM employees, their dependent parents and children.

�It will provide Rs 5 lakh worth of medical coverage on reimbursement basis and family floater basis... In case of certain serious ailments there will be provision for releasing the fund beforehand or on advance basis as well,� said Sarma.

The beneficiaries can avail treatment at all government empanelled hospitals, as well as hospitals empanelled with Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) and Atal Amrit Abhiyan (AAA).

Sarma said that within next one or two months the scheme will be extended to cover around 50,000 contractual Sarba Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) TET teachers from the State pool, besides to �additional� or contractual teachers of high schools.

�This scheme will then cover at least one lakh State government employees working under contract in NHM, SSA and under the Director of Secondary Education, as well as their parents and children,� said the minister.