BHUBANESWAR: Mamata, the Orissa Government’s ambitious scheme for protection of mothers and their children, is facing birth pangs. The beneficiaries, who will stand to gain financially from the initiative, are facing difficulties in opening bank accounts because of alleged non-cooperation from the banks.The Women and Child Development Department has received several complaints from the districts that the women have been asked by bank branches to produce various kinds of documents to open accounts.The Department now finds itself in an awkward position since the Mamata is all set to be launched by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on October 20.The scheme which aims at reduction of maternal and infant mortality by improving health and nutritional status of pregnant women and lactating mothers will cover expectant mothers above 19 years of age for the first two live births. The beneficiaries will be provided a financial assistance of Rs 5,000 in four instalments for additional nutrition as well as care.Under the scheme, the pregnant women will receive financial assistance from six months of pregnancy till the child attains nine months. The assistance will be deposited in the bank account of beneficiary directly from the project level. It will be transferred to the bank account of the mothers once she fulfills certain criteria such as getting pregnancy registered with anganwadi centres, undergoing health check-up and immunisation, registration of the newborn and its immunisation among others.The trouble starts here as the banks are reported to be seeking identity as well as residence proofs from the beneficiaries. In some cases, the complainants have stated that the banks have demanded a minimum balance of Rs 500 to Rs 1,000. Such unreasonable demands have discouraged the beneficiaries.Director of Social Welfare Sujata Karthikeyan has drawn the attention of the State-Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) to the issue. In a recent letter to Chief Manager, SLBC, she wrote that the Department continues to receive complaints from various districts on creation of bank accounts due to non-cooperation of the banks.Karthikeyan also requested that banks must ensure that the beneficiaries open their accounts in a hassle-free manner. However, account opening apart, some beneficiaries complained of not receiving passbooks on the same day while there were instances wherein the banks were unable to create more than two or three accounts due to shortage of staff on a given day.The Mamata scheme is slated to be launched in all 30 districts where close to 7.50 lakh pregnant women are targeted to be covered in a year. The Central, the State government and PSU employees will not be covered under the scheme.
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