Minister Errabelli Dayakar Rao today told the Assembly that the TRS government's Aasara Pension Scheme had benefited 39,36,521 people in the state.
Telangana Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Minister Errabelli Dayakar Rao today told the Assembly that the TRS government's Aasara Pension Scheme (APS) had benefited 39,36,521 people in the state.
Responding to queries during the Question Hour of today's Budget session, he said that the KCR regime had implemented the scheme keeping in mind the welfare of the people, and that it provided Rs 2,016 as regular pension, and Rs 3,016 as pension to the disabled beneficiaries.
"The government has been spending about Rs 11,724,70 crore per annum on the APS. Through the scheme, we have been able to help over 39 lakh people. 13,19,300 people have benefited from the old age pension while 14,43,648 have benefited from the pension for widows. Further, 4,89,648 disabled persons have also been helped by the scheme," he said.
Elaborating further on the various categories of people the APS had helped, Rao added, "37,342 weavers, 62,942 toddy tappers, 28,582 HIV patients, 14,140 filaria patients, 4,08,621 beedi workers, and 1,32,298 single women were also beneficiaries of this welfare scheme."
The minister then slammed the Centre for not contributing "adequately" to the pensions. He said that while 98.8% of the total spending on the pensions came from the state's exchequer, the Centre only financed 1.2% of the same, and added, "The Centre is extending only Rs 105 crore for the APS. This translates to Rs 200 for 6,66,000 people."
Claiming that no other state had as comprehensive a pension scheme as Telangana, he said, "While our state gives more than Rs 2,000 to each of our beneficiaries, the pension schemes of states like Rajasthan, UP, and Madhya Pradesh barely cross Rs 1,000. Though there were some difficulties in the implementation of the Aasara pensions last year, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we will implement the scheme as per the usual this year. Currently, we are deliberating whether to lower the eligibility for the old age pension to 57 years. It fills me with happiness to observe that under the rule of the TRS, a scheme that was earlier confined to a small group of beneficiaries in undivided Andhra Pradesh now helps so many."