Centre's share in State's pension is very meagre, says Dayakar Rao

Hyderabad: The Minister for Panchayat Raj & Rural Development Errabelli Dayakar Rao on Wednesday said the State government was giving ₹2,000 per month as pension under its Aasara pension scheme to 44,12,882 people. He said out of the total pensioners, the Central government was giving pension to only 6.66 lakh pensioners. He mocked that the amount of pension being given by Centre to these beneficiaries was just ₹200 per month.

Replying to questions raised by MLCs Syed Ameenul Hasan Jafri, Mirza Riyazul Hasan Effendi and T Jeevan Reddy in the Council, he mocked that the total pensions being given by the Centre can't even be compared with the pensions being given by them. Stating that ₹861 crore per month used to be spent in the undivided Andhra Pradesh State for payment of the pensions, he said the State government was spending ₹971 crore per month in the State and added that they had allocated ₹12000 crore for the implementation of the pension scheme

He said they received 81,1817 applications after the reduction of age limit for availing the old age pensions scheme from 65 years to 57 years. He said they had sanctioned pensions to 60,5018 eligible persons. He said of the 6,9141 applications received from Hyderabad, 5,2392 pensions were sanctioned by them. He told the members that they would look into the problem of finger prints.

Rao said they were providing pensions to 4000 dialysis patients and added that the State government was also giving pensions to widows, the disabled, toddy tapper, weavers and HIV patients like no other State government of the country. He said they had increased the pension of the disabled from ₹1500 to ₹3000 per month from 2019.