Make use of Central schemes for the challenged: Union Minister

Railway Kodur(Annamayya district): Union minister of state for social justice and empowerment A Narayana Swamy urged the disabled to utilize Central government schemes in a proper manner as it has been implementing a number of programmes for their development.

As part of his two-day programme in YSR district and Annamayya districts, the Union minister along with Railway Kodur YSRCP MLA Korumutla Srinivasulu, collector P S Girisha distributed cheques to the physically-challenged people under National Handicapped Finance and Development Corporation(NHFDC) here on Wednesday.

The minister pointed out that most of disabled were not able to utilise the welfare schemes jointly implemented by both the Central and the state governments due to lack of awareness about the schemes.

The minister has stressed the need of official mechienary to ensure in reaching the welfare schemes at lower level in the interest of beneficiaries.

Railway Kodur MLA K Srinivasulu opined that due lack of literacy among SCs and STs they were not able to access the government schemes. He said that state government under the guidance of Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy was implementing several programmes for raising the living standards of downtrodden communities in the district.

District collector Girisha said that Rs 1 crore has been distributed to 20 physically-challenged persons at Rs 5 lakh each under NHFDC in Railway Kodur constituency. He urged the beneficiaries to start small businesses like grocery stores, fancy stores instead of spending the amount on other purposes.

Disabled welfare department assistant director Krishna Kishore, Railway Kodur tahsildar K Rammohan, MPDO Nagarjuna Rao and others were present.