Fulfil poll promise of pensions, release dues to 11 lakh: Bandi

Hyderabad: State BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar on Thursday demanded Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao to fulfil the election promise of pensions to all 57-year-olds and release pending dues of Rs 78,624 to all 11 lakh beneficiaries.

In a letter addressed to the CM, he said the number of beneficiaries under the Aasara pension scheme would be going up due to reduction of the age limit to 57, as promised by the TRS in its election manifesto in 2018. Accordingly, the government should make adequate budgetary allocations to meet requirement of fresh beneficiaries and release guidelines for scrutinising their applications for pensions, Bandi demanded.

The Karimnagar MP said there were 39 lakh Aasara beneficiaries in the State. Another 11 lakh new beneficiaries falling under the new eligibility criterion had applied for pensions. "For the last three years, the new beneficiaries have been awaiting release of pensions. They have been running around the ruling party leaders and officials, desperately seeking pensions, but to no avail. Though the government announced that new pensions will be granted from April 1, it is unfortunate that no exercise to this effect has commenced so far," he said. "There are no guidelines from the government for new pensions, which clearly shows the callousness of the KCR government, he alleged.

The BJP president said if a person getting pension dies, another eligible member from the family should continue to get the benefit. "It is gross injustice to decide that only one person in a family is eligible to get pension. This is nothing but depriving livelihood of the poor.

"Because of this mindless decision of the government, more than two lakh poor have lost their pension under the scheme," he charged. "Since the promise was made in December 2018, each new eligible beneficiary under the scheme was due to get Rs 78,624 for the last 39 months. "The Telangana BJP demands that the government pay the arrears to the poor beneficiaries," he demanded.