Telangana Bharatiya Janata Party president and MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar, on Thursday, demanded that the TRS government grant social security pensions under Aasara scheme to 11 lakh-odd fresh eligible pensioners, in the wake of relaxation of the age limit.
In a letter written to Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, a copy of which was released to the media, he said the number of beneficiaries under Aasara pensions scheme would be going up due to reduced age limit to 57 years, as promised in the TRS election manifesto in 2018. Hence, the government should make adequate budgetary allocations to meet the requirement of fresh beneficiaries and release necessary guidelines for scrutinising the fresh applications, he said.
“The ruling party had promised to reduce the age limit of Aasara pension beneficiaries from 65 years to 57 years which adds 11 lakh new beneficiaries to the existing 39 lakh, but for the last three years there has been no move to include the fresh names in the eligibility list,” he said.
“This is forcing those eligible to run around the ruling party leaders and officials in desperation. Though the government has announced these will be granted from April 1, it is unfortunate that no exercise to this effect has commenced and no guidelines were issued indicating the callousness,” remarked the BJP president.
Pointing out that Aasara beneficiaries are the poor, he stated that it was “gross injustice” to decide that only one person in a family is eligible to get the pension. This has led to more than two lakh poor people losing out and already ₹78,624 is due to each new beneficiary as they have lost 39 months of payment since the promise was made in Dec. 2018.
Mr. Sanjay Kumar also wanted pensions to be a ‘continuous process’ in the sense that in case a person getting the pension dies, another eligible pensioner within the family should get it without delay. “Since the number of beneficiaries has gone up due to reduction of the age limit, the government should make necessary allocations in the budget for new pensioners,” he said, in the letter.
