Centre gives only 1.8 per cent of pension amount: E Dayakar Rao

Hyderabad: Panchayat Raj Minister E Dayakar Rao on Thursday revealed that Centre was providing just over Rs 200 crore under the pension scheme compared to Rs 11,700 crore allocated by the State government.

The Minister was replying to various supplementary questions on Aasara pension in the State. Dayakar Rao said the State government allocated Rs 11,700 crore under the pension scheme and spent Rs 3,958 crore so far. He said that the Central government provided only Rs 210 crore, which is 1.8 per cent of the State's contribution.

The Minister said that the State government had decided to extend the pension scheme to people who are 57 years or above. There was a delay in finalising the beneficiaries because of the corona pandemic and soon they would also be given the pension under the scheme. Replying to another question, the Minister said that pensions were also being provided to dwarfs who have doctor's certificates.

The Minister said that there were 38.32 lakh beneficiaries under the pension scheme and every month Rs 977 crore is being spent on the scheme. During the united Andhra Pradesh government allocated Rs 800 crore per year.

Replying to another question on the conversion of tandas into Gram Panchayats, Dayakar Rao said that there were 2,458 Gram Panchayats in the tribal areas. The government is giving Rs 339 crore to the Gram Panchayats every year, and the government provided Rs 2,373 crore from September 2019 to March 2020 to them.