Congress places its bets on hike in Aasra pensions to take on TRS

₹2 lakh farm loan waiver at one go promise has caught on: Uttam

An internal survey of the Telangana Congress — to identify the groups that are likely to sail with the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) — has found that Aasra pensioners are the biggest chunk of beneficiaries happy with the government while other beneficiaries like farmers and employees were not so committed.

Students and youngsters are largely in the mood to oppose the government, for various reasons, as per the survey. And to dent this potential group of over 40 lakhs the Congress party’s idea of proposing a higher pension of ₹ 2,000 took birth, according to a senior leader.

Across categories

Aasra pensions have directly benefited individuals, cutting across castes and religion, whereas other schemes were aimed at some castes and the beneficiaries too are few compared to the eligible seekers. “And the party constituted a committee headed by Jagityal MLA T. Jeevan Reddy, to study what best can be offered to Aasra pensioners and it has recommended doubling the pension amount,” a party leader revealed.

The internal study also threw up some interesting facts that TRS party’s promise of enhancing pensions from ₹ 200 to ₹ 1,000 in the last elections contributed greatly to its victory apart from the Telangana sentiment. The beneficiaries are not just aged but are across groups like Widows (14,31,060), Weavers (36,739), Toddy Tappers (62,110), Beedi Workers (4,08,343), Single Women (1,29,411), HIV positive patients (33,807) and Filaria patients (13,074) while old age persons are about 13,36,434, according to TPCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy.

He says about 4,92,587 differently-abled people are also beneficiaries and the Congress party will increase their pension from present ₹ 1,500 to ₹ 3,000 per month. “Besides doubling the pension amount, the party also aims to increase the number of beneficiaries in the old age pension category and reduce the eligibility age from present 65 years to 58 years.”

His argument is if a government employee gets to draw a pension from the age of 58 why should the poor and weaker sections get pension only after 65 years age. “We have already announced ₹ 2 lakh farm loan waiver at one go and the promise will be kept. In fact, the farmers are already with us after the way the government treated them on various fronts.”

Can the State finances afford such a steep hike? Mr. Reddy reveals that the first budget of Telangana State for the year 2014-15 was of ₹ 1,00,637 crore and the budget for the year 2018-19 was of ₹ 1,74,454 crore. Despite an increase of almost ₹ 70,000 crore in the last four years, the actual benefits did not reach the poor and deserving sections. The budgetary outlay for Aasra pensions for 2018-19 was about ₹ 5,300 crore and State can afford ₹ 10,000 crore for their welfare, he argues.