Govt nails Oppn 'lies' on Aasara pensions

Hyderabad: Telangana State government challenged the Opposition to prove their allegations that the it was cheating the poor. Official statistics said how government was spending nearly Rs 13,000 crore per annum on Aasara pensions. The government claimed Telangana State is number one in providing the highest number of pensions with highest pension amount in the country.

Officials said that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao wanted all the poor to live with dignity and financial security. The government stands by poor families with Aasara pensions and reduced the age limit from 65 to 57 years recently. With this, the total number of pension beneficiaries has been increased to 45.80 lakh in the State.

Since November 2014, the government has been implementing the Aasara pension scheme with the intention of ensuring that all the poor get benefitted. Like no other State in the country, the elderly, disabled, widows, single women, HIV-AIDS, filaria affected persons, handloom workers and Beedi workers are supported by the pensions.

The government has increased the pension amount from Rs 200 per month to Rs 2000. The government is giving Rs3,016 per month to disabled persons and Rs 2,016 per month to others under Aasara pensions. No State government in the country is giving such many pensions to all the poor. Similarly, the Telangana government is directly depositing the pension money in the accounts of the beneficiaries in a completely transparent manner. The government was also providing pensions to 6,906 dialysis victims in the State. The government was spending Rs 975 crore on pensions every month.