The state government has asked the central government to extend for another six months the enrolment and linking of all beneficiaries for the Supplementary Nutrition Programme (SNP).
Today, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, accompanied by Social Welfare Minister Paul Lyngdoh, met Annapurna Devi, Union Minister for Women and Child Development in New Delhi on the matter.
The beneficiaries are linked through Aadhaar and e-KYC and facial recognition systems for the SNP.
“I request if the state could be also allowed to cover all our recorded and registered MPR beneficiaries also for SNP till such time,” Sangma stated in his letter to Devi.
In a letter, the Chief Minister drew the attention of the Centre to issues the state is facing with regard to SNP.
According to Sangma as per MPR data the state has 5,85,254 beneficiaries whereas under the POSHAN tracker only 4,00,572 POSHAN 2.0 beneficiaries are registered. This means that 1,84,682 beneficiaries are left out.
“This is a significant 31.56 percent of all our eligible and registered beneficiaries which are getting missed out due to a variety of reasons,” the CM stated in his letter, adding that he also informed that the state government has stepped up its efforts for Aadhaar enrolment and seeding of these beneficiaries.
According to Sangma the procurement of smartphones for Anganwadi workers is in its final stages even as he added that an intensive campaign for e-KYC and capturing facial recognition has already kickstarted in campaign mode.
