The State government today made it clear that the central government would give only Rs. 210 crore for the implementation of the Aasara Pension scheme for beneficiaries of various categories.
State Panchayat Raj Minister Errabelli Dayakar Rao said that the state government was spending Rs. 11724.70 crore under the scheme and added that the share of the center in the total expenditure was just Rs. 210 crores.
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Rao said that the amount being given by the central government was enough to meet the expenditure of only 6 Lakh beneficiaries of the state. Rao said that the state has a total of 39,36,521 pensioners. He revealed these figures while replying to questions raised by MLAs of the State during question hour in the ongoing budget session of the State Assembly.
Speaking on the occasion he said that the State has a total of 13,19,300 Old Age Pensioners, 14,43,648 Widow Pensioners, 489648 Physically Handicapped Pensioners, 37342 Weaver Pensioners, 62942 Toddy Tappers,28582 HIV victims, 14410 Malaria Patients, 408621 and 132298 Single Women Pensioners. Rao said that the state government was implementing the scheme for the benefit of the poor people of the state. He said that no other state of the country was implementing such a scheme. He said that the scheme was benefiting the poor people of the state a lot.
He reminded that the scheme was confined to only a few sections of the state in the undivided AP state and added that they were now giving the pensions to single Women as well. Commenting on the issue of the reduction of the age limit for old-age pensions to 57 years as per their poll promise, he said that they could not do so due to the spread of the Covid 19 pandemic and added that they would soon declare guidelines to implement it.
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He said that it was CM KCR who had honored the disabled and single Women of the state.
SOURCE-IANS
