Finance and Health Minister T. Harish Rao said that only ₹600 pension is being given in BJP-ruled States, where they claim ‘double engine growth’, while it was ₹2,016 in Telangana.
“Telangana is the only State that has been offering ₹2,016 pension for the poor. No other State was able to do this. We are spending ₹12,000 crore every year for extending pensions to 45 lakh beneficiaries,” said Mr. Harish Rao while addressing a gathering after distributing pensions to the eligible at Sangareddy district headquarters on Thursday.
Stating that only ₹75 was paid as pension during the Telugu Desam Party regime and one had to wait for death of a pensioner to get it, the Minister said that it was only ₹200 during Congress rule. “We had promised ₹1,000 pension after coming to power in our first election campaign and we have successfully implemented it. During the second term, we have promised a pension of ₹2,016 and now we are implementing it. Due to COVID, extending pension to 57 year olds got delayed. Now, this was being implemented and new Aasara pensions are being sanctioned,” he said, asking why similar pension amount was not being extended to the eligible in Karnataka where BJP is in power.
“The Aasara pensions or 10 kg rice to the eligible are aimed to give a respectful and dignified life to the poor. The BJP Government at the Centre wants to remove these. But the same government has waived off ₹12 lakh crore to corporates. BJP has promised 2 crore jobs per year but failed to fulfil the promise while we have already filled up 1.3 lakh jobs and are going to fill a total of 2.1 lakh jobs,” said the Minister. He called upon people to teach a lesson to the BJP “which has been cheating them”.
Collector A. Sharath, Additional Collector Rajarshi Shah, Zilla Parishad chairperson P. Manjushree, and former MLA Chinta Prabhakar participated in the programme.
