Delay in Aasara cards distribution continues in Rajendranagar

Hyderabad: Amid the outcry against inordinate delay in disbursement of Aasara pensions to the existing beneficiaries, the government gave approvals to more number of pleas under different category especially in GHMC Rajendranagar area that not only created chaos on the first day of distribution of pension cards and even grow suspicion among the people.

It is said that in addition to already existing over eleven thousand beneficiaries from all categories in GHMC Rajendranagar, the government gave approval to more 1,593 applications without specifying the exact number of persons category wise.

The whole day of distribution of Aasara cards to new beneficiaries on Monday was a mess with a heavy influx of applicants flocked to the venue at GHMC office Rajendranagar to receive the same. However, as against the approved number of new 1,593 pensions, the sources said, only 100 beneficiaries get their cards on Monday.

On the first day of distribution, people were found venting frustration over the officials for not informing about the status of their pleas while the officials were seen busy in pacifying them with assurance that the process will continue in following days.

According to sources, out of a total of 1,593 new beneficiaries, only 100 cards were distributed on the first day and the remaining 64 were issued today. The distribution process is on and will continue in the following days until we get the instructions from Collectorate Rangareddy.

As per the earlier official statistics, there were only 1,796 beneficiaries under disabled category out of a total number of 11,238 recipients. As the total number of beneficiaries have gone up to 12,831 from 11,238 recipients with the inclusion of new 1593 beneficiaries, nothing has come out clear to what extent the number of disabled beneficiaries has increased. With no accurate statistics about the beneficiaries in hand, the officials are saying that the online data regarding the number and categories of new beneficiaries have not yet been updated and it will take time to ascertain the same.

"Presently we are confined to distribution of Aasara pension cards to new beneficiaries and we are completely unaware of the category wise number of the recipients. There was no immediate data available with us to reveal the same as the data was not yet uploaded," said the official.

There is an element of plausibility in beneficiaries' frustration as apart from new recipients there were people who were found upset over the delay in Aasara pensions to existing beneficiaries.

"Already the existing beneficiaries are not getting Aasara pensions on time since a year. The government released the pension of July on August 31 which is supposed to be released on or before 5th of every month while the dole of August and September remains pending.

As the pension amount plays an important role atleast to secure medicines for disabled persons, the disbursement should be made on time," said Syed Afroz, President of Disabled Welfare Society.