KCR to keep his first poll promise with Aasara

​Hyderabad: Doubling the pension amount to the aged and reduce the beneficiary age from 65 to 57 years under Aasara Pension Scheme will be the first among the other promises made by Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao to be implemented from April next year.

With the reduction of eligibility age, rough estimates say nearly 20 lakh new beneficiaries will be added to the pension scheme placing Rs 2,000 crore additional burden on state exchequer every year. At present, the government is spending Rs 5,000 crore every year on social security pension scheme extending financial assistance to 39 lakh destitutes. On KCR’s instructions, Chief Secretary began the exercise and called a meeting with all district collectors on Thursday. 

The TRS chief had promised to increase the pension amount to Rs 2,016 from the present Rs 1,000 for the aged. The pension benefit for the disabled will be increased to Rs 3,016 from Rs 1,500 if his party voted to power again in the just-concluded Assembly elections in which the TRS registered landslide victory by winning 88 seats out of the 119 total strength of the members in the Telangana Assembly. 

The chief secretary held a meeting with Secretary to Panchayat Raj department Vikas Raj and Rural Development Commissioner Nitu Prasad and reviewed the progress in identifying the new beneficiaries. The names mentioned in the voters list will be taken into consideration in finalising the beneficiaries. The government has already framed guidelines under which the beneficiary’s annual income in rural and urban areas should not exceed Rs 1 lakh and Rs 2 lakh respectively. 

They should also possess lands not more than 3.5 acres of wetland or 7 acres of dryland. Officials said that the chief secretary will give all necessary instructions in the video conference with the collectors to speed up the identification of beneficiaries.