Govt taking steps to empower women: Khattar

The Haryana government today said a woman availing the two per cent rebate in stamp duty for registering property in her name, can now, up to three years, furnish the decree only in the name of another woman.
In case, the decree of the property is made in the name of a man during this period, he would have to deposit the two per cent stamp duty.
The decision was taken because there were instances where some men from the same family got the decree of the property done in their name after the a woman registered it with the two per cent rebate, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said at the state-level Mahila Samman Samaroh here.

Khattar honoured 47 women achievers, awarded four districts for bettering sex ratio and three districts for improvements in nutrition-level among children.
He also announced that monthly honorarium of Anganwadi workers would be increased by Rs 640 and that of helpers by Rs 321.
The Chief Minister said the government is initiating effective steps for women empowerment.

Under the Ujjawla scheme, the entire state would be made kerosene free by March 31. This scheme would benefit about 5 lakh families, he said
The Budget allocation for the state Woman and Child Development Department for 2017-18 has been increased to Rs 1,247 crore from Rs 1,007 crore, Khattar said.

The Chief Minister urged women to take a pledge to completely eliminate social evils like female foeticide, dowry and child marriage.
He said the ambitious 'Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao' programme launched from Haryana has shown fruitful results.
"The sex ratio at birth that was around 850 had now increased to 938 girls for 1,000 boys in February. The government plans to increase the sex ratio to 950 this year," Khattar said.
Speaking on this occasion, Haryana Women and Child
Development Minister Kavita Jain highlighted the contribution of women in advancement of society.
She said the Kalpana Chawla Shaurya award has been conferred upon Nisha Yadav, a teacher in Wazirabad village, and the Behan Shanno Devi Panchayati Raj award was conferred upon Gayatri Devi, the head of Dhand village.

Each of these awards are accompnaied with Rs 1 lakh cash. Shanta Jain, a social worker, was honored with the Life Time Achievement Award, which carries Rs 51,000 in cash, Jain said.
The outstanding achievers award was conferred upon 22 women for their performance in different fields.
For imporvemnent in sex ratio, Rohtak and Rewari bagged the first position while Jind and Ambala got second and third places respectively. They were awarded Rs 5 lakh, Rs 3 lakh and Rs 2 lakh respectively, Additional Chief Secretary of the Woman and Child Development P K Mahapatra said.
Awards for improvement in nutritional level were given away to the deputy commissioners of Kaithal, Mewat and Gurugram for securing first, second and third positions respectively. They got Rs 2 lakh, Rs 1 lakh and Rs 50,000 respectively, he said.

Apart from this, best Anganwari workers were also honoured, Mahapatra said.