CM KCR announces 10 lakh new pensions from August 15

Hyderabad: Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao announced that 10 lakh new pensions will be given to all those aged above 57 in the State from August 15. At present, 36 lakh people are getting pensions and another 10 lakh will be added. New pension cards enabled with bar codes will be issued to all the 46 lakh pensioners, the Chief Minister said.

Considering the plight of dialysis patients, the Chief Minister said a monthly Aasara pension of Rs 2,016 will be given to the patients. This will be in addition to the services being extended free to the patients. Taking a jibe at the Central government’s vested campaign on freebies and the adverse impacts, the Chief Minister said: “Will these also be considered as freebies? A few decisions have to be taken on humanitarian grounds”.

Making things clear, the Chief Minister said during the last financial year, the State government had accumulated and spent Rs 1.90 lakh crore. Of the Rs 1.90 lakh crore, the Centrally-Sponsored schemes cumulative share was just about Rs 5,000 crore, he further said. Commemorating the 75th year of Independence, instructions were issued to release 75 prisoners with good conduct. He also said orphans will be declared as State Children and the government will support their education from KG to PG, besides extending reservations in employment as well.

‘NPAs value jumped ten-fold’

Exposing the BJP’s dual standards, Chief Minister Chandrashekhar Rao said the party had made a hue and cry over the 2G spectrum auctions in the past. But interestingly for the 5G spectrum auctions, the expected revenue was around Rs 5 lakh crore but the earnings were about Rs 1.5 lakh crore.

Listing out the Centre’s failures, the Chief Minister said during 2004-05 the value of Non-Performing Assets (NPA) was Rs 58,000 crore. In 2014, the NPA value increased to Rs 2.63 lakh crore but during the Modi government’s tenure, the NPA value escalated to over Rs 20 lakh crore, registering ten-fold jump, he pointed out. This is a big business. NPAs and the government were hand in glove as nearly Rs 12 lakh crore was sanctioned for NPAs, he said.

On one end, the Centre conducts the ‘Make in India’ campaign and at the other end, it imports crackers and lamps for Diwali and even national flags from China. Is this a yardstick for the so-called development claimed by BJP? the Chief Minister asked.