Beneficiaries of social security pension schemes implemented by various departments of the Tamil Nadu government will get ₹1,200 instead of ₹1,000 per month, said Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu.
Explaining a decision taken in the Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister M. K. Stalin, he said it would cost an additional amount of ₹845.01 crore per year. He said the increase will come into effect immediately and beneficiaries will get the amount from August.
Mr. Thennarasu said over 30.55 lakh beneficiaries including old-age people, widows, refugees, members of various unorganised workers welfare board, women who remain unmarried even after the age of 50, were getting pension and 74 lakh people have applied to the government seeking assistance. “The Cabinet has decided to release pension to all eligible candidate. It will cost an additional ₹845.01 crore to cover the new candidates and the increase the amount to the existing beneficiaries,” he said.
The Minister said the monthly pension to the differently-abled had already been increased to ₹1,500 from ₹1,000.
Asked about the Centre’s contribution to the pension schemes, Finance Secretary T. Udayachandran said the Centre’s share was ₹300 for pensioners over the age of 80 and ₹200 for others. The rest comes from the State government.
When reminded of the promise of the DMK’s manifesto that old age pension would be increased to ₹1,500, Mr Thennarasu said it would be gradually done. “The amount was gradually increased from ₹20 in 1962,” he pointed out.
Asked whether the government had any proposal to relax criteria to include more beneficiaries under Kalaignar Mahalir Urimai Thogai Scheme, he said the government did not want to reduce the number of beneficiaries. “The Chief Minister has made it clear that all eligible candidates should be covered and none should be left out,” he said.
He said the camps for identifying the beneficiaries for the scheme would be conducted in three phases. “There will be 35,000 camps and each ration shop will be considered as a unit,” he explained.
Mr Thennarasu came down on the AIADMK for its stand on the Manipur issue, saying that former Chief Minister Edappai K. Palaniswami had not condemned the incidents even though he had claimed that his party was not a slave to anyone.
