Postal staff start giving out financial assistance

Kolhapur: Postal workers across the district have started the distribution of financial assistance under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojna and Pradhan Mantri Shetkari Sanman Yojna on Monday.

Kolhapur collector Daulat Desai has requested the beneficiaries of the schemes to stay indoors to avoid crowding at the banks.

Rahul Mane, manager of the district lead bank, said the postmen associated with the post payment bank are distributing the aid to the beneficiaries with the help of Aadhaar Enabled Payment Systems (AEPS) machine.

He said that even if any beneficiary fails to collect the aid, it will remain in the account and will not relapse. The account holders have been told to not believe in rumours pertaining to the distribution of the financial aid.

Even the Satara district administration has requested the beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojna to stay indoors and has asked the banks to provide a list of such beneficiaries to the district lead bank.

Satara collector Shekhar Singh has instructed all the banks in the district to provide a list of village-wise beneficiaries to the lead bank. The lead bank will submit the list to the Satara post payment bank. The postman associated with the post payment bank will distribute the aid to the beneficiaries with the help of the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) units.

He added that all the banks in the district — cooperative, nationalized or private — all are functional with between 8 am and 11 am. He said the district has around 468 ATM units, which too can be used.

Meanwhile, 48 people have been tested negative for Covid-19 in Satara on Monday, while 15 with coronavirus-like symptoms have been admitted to the isolation wards of the district hospital, Satara, Krishna Hospital, Karad, and sub-district hospital in Phaltan.

In Kolhapur district, shelter homes are hosting 832 citizens across 15 venues, said Desai. He added that the citizens have been put under institutional quarantine at these shelter homes located in Kolhapur city, Kagal, Hatkanagale, Wathar, Ichalkaranji, Jaysingpur, Gadhinglaj, and Gaganbawda areas of the district.

He said that 226 residents are from Maharashtra and 606 are from other states. Most of the migrants are from Karnataka (217), followed by Tamil Nadu (214), Rajasthan (86), Madhya Pradesh (42) and Uttar Pradesh (29) among other