Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday assured the Assembly that his government was keen on ensuring that no deserving beneficiary was denied pension, but requested the members to not criticise just for the sake of criticism.
In his reply to the protracted ‘short discussion’ on ‘Aasara’, the government pension scheme, he said that every one of their suggestions would be given due consideration. He said from a mere Rs. 881.23 crore that the earlier government spent on pensions, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) has allocated a whopping Rs. 4,000 crore.
Declining to answer point-by-point on the Opposition’s criticism, he said the process of receiving applications and verification was continuing. “In about a week or so, when it is completed, the government will table the district and Assembly constituency-wise figures of how many eligible persons will receive old age, widow, physically challenged, toddy tappers and weavers pensions,” he said.
Mr. Rao said they would start the budget exercise early next year, by February itself. “Let all these schemes land first and then we will see how to scale it up. Whether it is pension for welfare or rice for nutrition, we have increased the allocation three times compared to the previous government. I request the members to let these schemes land. We don’t want to shirk our responsibility,” he said.
Since afternoon, members including Leader of Opposition K. Jana Reddy and T. Jeevan Reddy, Floor Leader of the Telugu Desam Party Errabelli Dayakar Rao, K. Laxman and Chintala Ramachandra Reddy (BJP) and Akbaruddin Owaisi (MIM) kept picking holes in ‘Aasra’ pensions.
A common point that they all underscored was the need to reduce the age criteria for old age pensions to 60 from 65 and to remove the restriction that allowed pension only to one member in each family.
