Senior citizens to get aid from Centre under Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana

BERHAMPUR: Six districts, including Ganjam, have been selected for implementation of the Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana (RVY), a central scheme for senior citizens under the below poverty line (BPL) category. The other districts are Angul, Sundargarh, Mayurbhanj, Dhenkanal and Nuapada.
Under the scheme, the eligible senior citizens under the BPL category will be provided the necessary aid and assistive devices.Some of the aid and assistive devices are hearing aids, wheelchairs, walking sticks, spectacles, crutches and dentures, said an official source.
The entire cost of the aids and assistive devices would be borne by the ministry of social justice and empowerment (MoSJE), the source said. As many as 2,000 senior citizens in each district would be benefited under the scheme.
The distribution of the aid and assistive devices would be distributed in camps to be set up by the implementing agency - Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India - a central public sector undertaking under the MoSJE.
In Ganjam district, the government has planned to hold such camp at Hinjili very shortly.
Meanwhile, collector (Ganjam) Prem Chandra Choudhury has asked the block development officers, commissioner, Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BeMC), and executive officers of urban local bodies to identify the beneficiaries. The list of the beneficiaries would be forwarded to the Centre.
"We have involved corporators to identify the eligible beneficiaries in their respective wards," said a senior officer of the BeMC here.
Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana was launched in the country in December 2016.