Representative Image
Neyyattinkara: The second phase of the Kerala Government’s LIFE Mission project is progressing in an unsystematic manner, keeping the applicants on their toes. If the government fails to intervene, then more than half of the applicants will be reportedly devoid of the benefit from the scheme.
As of December 18, 48.04 percent of applications were uploaded online after verification by various local self-government bodies across the state. That means more than half of the applications are not uploaded by the local self-government bodies due to the delay in verification. Notably, December 20 was the last date to upload the applications online. If the deadline is not extended, then the hopes of many will be shattered. Earlier, the deadline was once extended from November 30 as the verification process moved at a snail’s pace.
Authorities in local self-government bodies alleged that the non-cooperation of agriculture department officials led to the delay in the process. Notably, the review meeting convened by the chief secretary took the decision to involve agriculture department officials allocated for local self-government bodies in the verification process. Meanwhile, agriculture department officials claim that they have not received any order regarding it. Reportedly, this discrepancy has resulted in the delay.
Local self-government bodies have received a total of 9,17,520 applications during the second phase of the project. Among them, 6,42,388 applicants are homeless, while 2,75,132 are both homeless and landless.
Among the districts in Kerala, Wayanad topped in uploading the highest number of applications after verification by completing 64.31 percent. The number of applications from the district was 38,956. Meanwhile, Palakkad district recorded the highest number of applications with 1,36,237. But only 31.08 percent of the applications have been uploaded after field-level verification. Similarly, in the Thiruvananthapuram district, the number of applications received and uploaded is at 1,14,032 and 60,534 respectively.