Rajasthan State PCS

• 06 Apr 2023

Scotch Award to Social Justice and Empowerment Minister

Why in News?

On 4 April 2023, Rajasthan's Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Tikaram Julie was presented with the national level prestigious Scotch Award, which includes one gold and two silver awards received by departmental officials. Minister Tikaram Julie again dedicated this award to the departmental officers.

Key Points

• Six major innovations have been selected for the award after testing them at different stages for providing services in the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment in an easily accessible, transparent and hassle-free manner.
• It may be noted that the Scotch Award is a national-level prestigious award, in which the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment has been honored with one Gold and two Silver Awards. Received three awards and three Order of Merit certificates.
• Under these awards, Gold Award has been given in Palanhar Yojana, North Matric Scholarship and Silver Award in Mukhyamantri Kanyadan Yojana. Apart from this, three schemes namely Corona Sahayata Yojana, Social Security Pension Scheme and Anuprati Yojana have been honoured by giving Order of Merit Certification.
• It is worth noting that the innovations of the Social Justice and Empowerment Department have been recognized at the national level and a digital certificate and citation were provided by the Scotch Award team at the national level Scotch Award Digital Ceremony was organized to recognize the innovation in the schemes.
• The Department of Social Justice and Empowerment is providing public services to its 1 crore 10 lakh beneficiaries in an easy, simple, quick, transparent, hassle-free, quality and convenient manner and financial assistance of about Rs 12,000 crore every year directly into the accounts of the beneficiaries without any corruption. For this, the work of simplification and digitization of administrative processes is being done by the department to make the benefits of the schemes accessible to the beneficiaries through technical innovations using information technology.

Rs. 736 crore Interest Subsidy approved for the farmers of Rajasthan

Why in News?

On 4 April 2023, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot approved a financial proposal of Rs 736 crore to provide interest-free crop loans to farmers.

Key Points

• The Chief Minister has approved a grant amount of Rs 560 crore for the farmers under the interest-free crop loan grant scheme and Rs 176 crore under the compensatory interest grant scheme.
• With this decision of the Chief Minister, farmers of the state will be able to get interest-free loans. This will increase their income and their standard of living will be better.
• A 5 percent interest subsidy will be given to the farmers who repay the long-term agriculture cooperative loan on time. Along with this, approval has been given to give subsidies on housing loans to the farmers who have built houses on their farms.
• In this, from 1 April 2014, the farmers who repay the long-term agricultural cooperative loans on time will get a 5 percent interest subsidy every year from the state government. Along with this, from the financial year 2023-24, a 5 percent interest subsidy will be given every year to the farmers who have taken housing loans to build houses on their farms.
• It is notable that in the budget 2023-24, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot announced an interest-free crop loan distribution scheme and interest subsidy for farmers.