Hyderabad, Sept.10 (Hydnow): Coming down heavily on rival BJP, state Panchayat Raj Minister Errabelli Dayakar Rao today made it clear that the pensions under the Aasara scheme were being given to the people of the state by the state government. He alleged that the BJP leaders were trying to create confusion among the people by claiming that the pensions were being given by the central government. He also made it clear that the Central government was giving only ₹210 crore per annum towards the scheme. He made these remarks while replying to questions raised by the members of the state Assembly during question hour in the ongoing monsoon session of the house.
Speaking on the occasion Rao said that the Aasara pension beneficiaries of the state would consider the Chief Minister as their elder son and added that they would also respect the CM a lot. He said that a total of 38,32,801 people had been benefited under the scheme by the end of August this year. Rao also said that the state government had spent ₹31,902.91 crore for the implementation of the scheme till now. Referring to the poll promise of the ruling TRS party that it would decrease the age limit to avail the old age pensions from the existing 65 years to 57 years, the minister said that the proposal related to the same was under the active consideration of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.
He said that the rulers of the undivided AP state had spent only ₹800 crore for the implementation of the pension scheme and added that their government was spending ₹11,725 crore per annum for the scheme now. Citing that only old age people, widows and handicapped used to get the pensions earlier, he said that the state government was giving pensions to other sections such as weavers, toddy tappers, Beedi workers, single women, HIV patients and malaria patients. (Hydnow)
Advertisements