Government To Launch Two More Guarantees On February 27 Or 29

Chief Minister Revanth Reddy today directed the officials to make the necessary arrangements immediately for the implementation of the Gruha Jyothi and the cooking gas cylinder at Rs 500 schemes.

The Chief Minister has reportedly tentatively decided to launch the two guarantees on February 27 or 29.

Reddy along with Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka held a review meeting with the Cabinet Sub-Committee at the Secretariat. Ministers N Uttam Kumar Reddy, D Sridhar Babu and Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, and Chief Advisor to the Chief Minister Vemnarender Reddy also participated in the meeting.

During the meeting, the Cabinet Sub-Committee discussed in detail the arrangements being made for the implementation of the two schemes and the procedures to be followed in the execution.

The Chief Minister then ordered the officials to extend the Rs 500 gas cylinder scheme benefit to all the eligible applicants from the Praja Palana program, and to implement the Gruha Jyothi scheme in a transparent manner without any scope for doubts and misconceptions.

Reddy emphasized that a user-friendly mechanism needed to be adopted where the beneficiary would get the cylinder by paying just Rs 500, and asked the officials to hold talks with the gas distribution agencies to ensure that.

"Arrangements should be made to pay the subsidy amount immediately on behalf of the government to the agencies," Reddy said.

He also enquired with the State finance and civil supplies department officials about the challenges and hurdles to be faced.

As for the Gruha Jyothi scheme, officials were given clear instructions to extend it to all those who possessed a white ration card and consumed less than 200 units per month for domestic needs. The energy department was asked to issue "zero" electricity bills to all the eligible beneficiaries of the scheme from the first week of March.

Reddy also suggested that the officials give an opportunity to the applicants to rectify any errors like wrong card numbers and power connection numbers in their applications submitted during Praja Palana.

"This will help any applicants who got wrongly rejected to avail themselves of the scheme. The electricity bill collection centres and service centres will undertake the correction of the wrong details in the applications," the CM said.

Officials were also instructed to open regular counters at the MPDO and Tahsildar offices to receive applications continuously from those who did not apply in the Praja Palana program.

Reddy also asked the energy department officials to carry out a mass campaign through flexies so that all the people were aware of the scheme implementation in every village.

State Chief Secretary Santhi Kumari, Finance Special Chief Secretary K Ramakrishna Rao, Civil Supplies Commissioner D S Chauhan, TRANSCO and GENCO CMD Rizvi, Principal Secretary to the CM Seshadri and other officials participated in the meeting.

The State government is already implementing two of the six guarantees - the Mahalakshmi scheme which provides free bus travel for women in TSRTC buses, and enhancment of the Arogyasri scheme limit to Rs 10 lakh from Rs 5 lakh.