Approximately 17,000 persons in Amaravati’s capital city will now reap the benefit of an enhanced pension from the landless poor pension scheme, thanks to a recent government directive doubling the amount from ₹2,500 to ₹5,000.
Within this beneficiary pool, roughly 8,000 reside in Tadikonda Assembly constituency, with the remaining 9,000 in the Mangalagiri Assembly constituency. The decision by Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy just before the general elections has garnered significant public interest in the Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA).
The political implications of the decision are also hard to miss, with the ruling party not wanting to take any chances in Mangalagiri constituency where TDP national general secretary Nara Lokesh is expected to contest from.
Guntur District Collector M. Venugopal Reddy confirmed to this correspondent that the increased pension amount of ₹5,000 has been disbursed to eligible beneficiaries for the month of March. He stated that this enhancement has raised the monthly expenditure to approximately ₹8.50 crore, and the yearly expenditure to over ₹102 crore, when compared to previous budgets which were half of these figures respectively.
The State government initiated this pension scheme after former Chief Minister and TDP national president Nara Chandrababu Naidu had taken agricultural lands under the innovative Land Pooling Scheme (LPS) from farmers for the construction of the Amaravati capital city, encompassing over 50,000 acres of land, both government-owned and privately held.
Mr. Naidu’s government gave annuity for the loss of livelihood to the land owners, while providing pension to these landless poor, who largely depended on these agricultural lands for daily wage labour. In fact, the State government did not give compensation to the farmers for their loss of lands, but assured returning developed lands within ten years. Yet, the farmers did not get the developed returnable lands as per the government’s assurance.
The decision to hike pensions for the landless poor in Amaravati was set in motion following a request to the Chief Minister by Prathipadu MLA Mekathoti Sucharitha, who is going to be fielded by the YSRCP from Tadikonda for the forthcoming elections, during a public meeting in Phirangipuram last month. The commitment by the Chief Minister fulfils a promise made during the 2019 general elections and aligns with statements made while passing the three capitals bill.
However, Amaravati JAC convener Puvvada Sudhakara Rao criticised the timing of the implementation, alleging political motivations ahead of the upcoming elections. Mr. Rao pointed out that the YSRCP government gradually reduced the number of beneficiaries in the last five years, citing official data from the A.P. Capital Region Development Authority. He added that the number of beneficiaries was reduced from 21,463 in 2019 to about 17,000 in 2024 under the YSRCP government.
