The State government has announced that the distribution of pension at the revised age limit of 57 years and above will start soon, Panchayat Raj Minister E. Dayakar Rao said on Sunday.
Reducing the age limit for pension from 65 to 57 has been an election promise of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and the government had embarked on the process since the past few months. The reduction of age limit is expected to add over six lakh beneficiaries.
The government had already obtained reports on the number of beneficiaries consequent on reduction in the age limit from several parts of the State and is awaiting information pertaining to certain municipal corporations and municipalities. The Minister said that in spite of the adverse impact of COVID pandemic on the State’s economy, Telangana was the only State that continued implementation of welfare schemes uninterrupted.
Speaking at a meeting of elected representatives at Palakurthy in Warangal (Rural) district on Sunday, he admitted that the benefits of certain developmental schemes could not reach people on the expected lines since the past few months in view of the pandemic. Now, since the vaccine had been made available, the government would vigorously work for ensuring that the benefits reached the grass-roots.
He recalled that the government had provided employment to over one lakh eligible candidates. Recruitment process for certain posts was however stopped at different levels owing to technical reasons. The process for commencing skill development programmes for youth for making them employment-ready would be initiated soon and the government was working out modalities for economic uplift of SCs/STs by providing loans to them.
