Nearly 190,000 appeals have been received thus far pertaining to the beneficiaries list of the ‘Aswesuma’ welfare benefits scheme, State Minister of Finance Shehan Semasinghe said.
Accordingly, 188,794 appeals and 3,304 objections have been received thus far, Semasinghe clarified, adding that for any further inquiries, the general public can contact the hotline number ‘1924’ which is operational on weekdays from 8.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m.
On 25 June, the State Minister announced that all relevant officials have been informed so that the people can hand over appeals and objections under the ‘Aswesuma’ social security scheme personally at the Divisional Secretariats across the island.
“The final beneficiary list of Aswesuma’ Social Welfare Programme is not been published yet & after evaluating the appeals and objections received Government Agents (GAs) and Assistant GAs will publish the final beneficiary list. If further injustice is found, the Welfare Benefits Board will intervene”, he said in a Twitter statement dated 24 June.
Meanwhile, on 25 June, the President’s Media Division (PMD) noted that the Government is paying close attention to certain parties’ attempts to satisfy their political needs by giving the ‘Aswasuma’ program a political façade.
However, the Government assured that any shortcomings in the process of selecting the relevant candidates will be rectified immediately and plans are being made to discuss this with the district secretaries, divisional secretaries, and other parties involved in the program in the coming week.
