Welfare and security schemes provided by Municipal Corporations
1. Agricultural Pension
2. Old Age Pension
3. Financial assistance for marriage of daughters of valid widows
4. Agati Pension (for widows and divorcees)
5. Maternal Assistance Scheme
6. Disability Pension
7. Pension for unmarried women after 50 years
8. Unemployment Wages
Unemployment Wages
The unemployed persons registered in the Employment Exchange will receive unemployment wages of 120 rupees per month. 21 to 35 year olds will get wages. After registering with the exchange and attaining three years of seniority, unemployment benefits can be received at the age of 21. The local bodies will provide the information of the applicants to the exchange. In case of ineligibility wages can be denied based on the reply given by the exchange. Wages will be paid till the age of 35 years.
Welfare Pensions
Applications for welfare pensions are accepted, sanctioned and disbursed by the respective local bodies.
National Old Age Pension
The welfare scheme is for economically backward persons above 65 years of age who have lived in the same place for three years and whose annual family income is less than Rs.11,000. Indigent husband and wife will get. Parents do not get pension if they have sons above 20 years of age.
Widow Pension / Destitute Pension
Welfare scheme for economically backward widows. The monthly pension is Rs.110. A woman whose husband has died must not have remarried. A woman abandoned by her husband and a woman who has no information about her husband for seven years are also eligible. Annual family income should be less than 3,600 rupees. No relatives (father, mother, son) above 20 years of age. Even if she has a minor son, the mother will get pension till the son reaches 20 years of age.
Pension for the physically challenged
Mute, blind, mentally retarded and 40% disabled persons are eligible. Annual income should not exceed Rs.6,000. No relatives (father, mother, wife, husband, son) above 20 years of age. Annual income should not exceed Rs 6,000 if there are relatives.
The guide
Friends
Friends will accept all pensions related to RTO, Revenue, Civil Supplies, KSEB, Water Authority, Kerala University, Municipal Corporation, BSNL. Located at Safaliam Shopping Complex in Palayam, Friends will be open from 9 am to 7 pm. It will also work on Sunday. All other public holidays are holidays for Friends.
Building tax and building permit
Building tax is levied at a fixed percentage of the rent that would have been reasonably fetched if the building had been rented out. Building tax is applicable to all buildings except central government institutions twice a year in semi-annual installments.
Various documents for building construction should be submitted to the respective local government bodies. The basic documents are the title deed of the land and three copies of the construction plan of the building. The application should be submitted on the application form received from the local government body.
Within one month of receiving the application, the Building Inspector or Panchayat Secretary should inspect the premises and give a reply that permission may or may not be granted.
If no reply is received within one month, the applicant can complain in writing to the local body secretary. If you receive a complaint like this, you can call an officer in the local government council and ask for an explanation.
Department of Local Self-Government website
Officially about Local Self-Government Department and 1223 Local Self-Government Bodies. A comprehensive web site providing information was launched on 9 December 2002. This website is envisioned as a main source of information on decentralization and decentralized planning and a repository of information on local self-government bodies, useful to officials, the general public and the academic community. This website is the largest government website with about 100,000 pages. This website has been established under the technical supervision of Information Kerala Mission.
Kudumbashree
Kudumbashree is an application of the innovation of poverty alleviation program with community participation. This project is being successfully implemented across Kerala, which seeks to tackle all forms of poverty through an organized and systematic association of women from below poverty line and distressed families. This scheme has been extended to all Municipal Corporations and Gram Panchayats of the State. Poor households are identified by neighborhood group members based on distress factors. The project envisages the formation of Kudumbashree Neighborhood groups consisting of 15 to 40 women each from gram panchayats at the lowest level and Area Development Societies (Ward Samiti) coordinating these neighborhood groups at the ward level and Community Development Societies coordinating the Ward Samiti at the panchayat level.
Key Activities and Achievements
* Organization system of poor families
Kudumbashree organizational system comprising 132031 Area Development Societies and 991 Community Development Societies has been formed in rural areas by organizing the poor families to form 146114 neighborhood groups with 2895951 families as members and coordinating these. In addition to this, 2030 neighborhood groups have been formed in the Scheduled Tribes area involving 32640 tribal families. 10687 neighborhood groups comprising 292207 families were formed in urban areas and 894 Area Development Societies and 59 Community Development Societies were functioning by coordinating these. A total of 3,220,798 families, 158,831 neighborhood groups, 14,095 ADSs and 1,050 CDSs are functioning under the Kudumbashree organizational system in the state. 549.53 crores have been collected as deposits from the neighboring members and out of this 1230.26 crores have been made available as loans to the members.
* Linkage Banking
276.13 crore was made available to 63598 neighborhood groups through Bank Linkage Program to encourage neighborhood groups to engage in small enterprises by converting small savings into capital investment.
* Micro enterprises
More than 1,00,000 micro-enterprises have been started by capitalizing only on the investment of neighborhood groups to generate additional income at the family level to achieve the goal of poverty alleviation. In addition, 15312 individual enterprises, 1345 group enterprises of 10 women with an investment of Rs 1 to 2 lakhs have been started in urban areas, 20017 group enterprises and 14,662 individual enterprises have been started in rural areas.
* Lease land farming
In the agricultural sector, there is an increase in the activity of neighboring groups organized to take over paddy fields and agricultural lands that have been left fallow by renting them to the owners. In the last three years, 319914 families in 32711 neighboring groups in 866 Gram Panchayats have cultivated 2112.33 hectares of land in this way.
* Rehabilitation scheme for dependent and needy families
In the first phase of the Ashraya scheme, which was devised to find and rehabilitate the poor and destitute families, in the financial year 2002-03, 101 panchayats, 78 gram panchayats in 2003-04, 185 gram panchayats and 4 municipalities in 2004-05, and 21 gram panchayats and 2 municipalities in 2005-06, 391 local bodies are implementing this project. Panchayats have prepared projects for the rehabilitation of 30941 families with an estimated cost of Rs 159.47 crore. In the financial year 2005-06, it is targeted to extend the Ashra scheme to 300 Gram Panchayats. The problems faced by poor families can be categorized into survival needs, infrastructure needs, developmental needs and psychological needs. A ‘package of care services’ is being implemented to address these issues.
* Clean Kerala Project
This is a project that collects waste from urban households and brings it to dumping yards and provides employment opportunities to Kudumbashree groups. Each DWCUA group of 15 women will have 3 tipper autos. 3 sub-groups of 5 persons collect waste daily from the houses at a rate of Rs.25 per month. Bank loans are available for tipper autos. The amount received from the fee is used for loan repayment and their expenses. 5 such waste disposal units have been started in Thiruvananthapuram Municipality. 60 Clean Kerala units have started functioning in Kochi, Kozhikode, Alappuzha, Guruvayur, Kannur, Muvatupuzha, Aluva, Shornur, Palakkad, Thrissur, Irinjalakuda, Pala and Attingal municipalities. This is one of the best employment initiatives that can be extended to rural areas as well.
* New job opportunity for rural youth through coconut climbing training This is an employment initiative aimed at creating employment opportunities for youth from poor families and helping coconut farmers. At least 100 coconuts can be climbed per day with this device as coconut climbing can be done effortlessly with the help of the device to climb up to a height of about 40 feet in 2-3 minutes. Training is provided at Agro Industries Corporation Training Center in Kochi, Thrissur. Many people have already been trained. After the training, they are provided a coconut lifting machine manufactured by Agro Industries Corporation at a low cost.
* Micro Housing – Bhavanshree
Micro-housing is a scheme that provides loans from nationalized banks of the state to the homeless poor families for construction of houses. 30000/Rs to 50000/Rs at an interest rate of 7.25% and the scheme is planned to be repaid in 120 monthly installments. The scheme has been approved by the state level bankers committee and the banks have been asked to implement the scheme. 49874 people have already come forward for Bhavanshree loan. Of these, the applications of 29512 people have been delivered to the banks and loans have been distributed to 14586 people.
* Balasabha – Balasabhas are formed with emphasis on children’s education and employment to prevent the spread of poverty to the next generation. Empowerment of children is aimed at through Balasabhas which give equal importance to education and entertainment. Already 24645 Balasabhas have been formed in the state with 441846 children as members.
* Mid-summer vacation classes – Mid-summer vacation classes are organized by the municipalities to help children studying in classes 8, 9, and 10 to gain more knowledge in the subjects of science, mathematics, and English and pass the exams easily.