KOLKATA: The Bengal government on Friday said it was extending the widow pension coverage to 21 lakh from April 2022 setting aside an allocation of Rs 960 crore.
Social security pensions of Rs 1,000 per month are provided to 6,80,564 beneficiaries in Bengal under the Widow Pension Scheme and to 16,89,657 beneficiaries under the Old Age Pension Scheme.
MoS (finance) Chandrima Bhattacharya in her budget speech in the state assembly said, “Apart from providing old age and disability pension, we are also providing widow pension to more than 13 lakh widows with an annual expenditure of Rs 1,560 crore. Another eight lakh applications for widow pension have been received through various outreach initiatives like ‘Duare Sarkar’. We are happy to announce that we have decided to provide widow pension to all these eight lakh applicants from April 1, 2022, taking the total coverage of widow pension to more than 21 lakhs. I propose to provide Rs. 960 crore in this year’s budget for the purpose.”
Bhattacharya said that apart from providing subsidised and free ration and health protection through Swasthya Sathi to more than 10 crore people, the state is also providing social pension to more than 70 lakh beneficiaries with an annual financial involvement of around Rs. 9,000 crore. “Till now, we have also guaranteed assured income support to 1.53 crore women in the age group of 25-60 years through Lakshmir Bhandar with annual financial involvement of around Rs 10,000 crore,” she said in her budget speech.
