Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac on Friday borrowed a line from Sree Narayana Guru to encapsulate what the new Left Democratic Front government’s maiden budget for 2016-17 hoped to achieve.
Speaking on social security, Dr. Isaac said the LDF would “protect everybody from the want for food and clothing.” Dr. Isaac said he had drawn the words from a simple prayer authored by the 19{+t}{+h}century social reformer to sum up the government’s budget values.
He said he hiked all social welfare pensions to Rs.1,000 with retrospective effect from June. Pension dues would be paid before Onam and one month’s pension given in advance.
The Kudumbasree had been tasked to find out whether it was feasible for their workers to deliver pensions home. Unskilled labourers above 60 would come under pension cover. So would women abandoned by their husbands for more than five years.
