Karnataka CM mulls raising pension for senior citizens to Rs 2,000

Siddaramaiah said his government will take necessary steps to increase the pension for senior citizens in the next state budget

Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said his government will take necessary steps to increase the pension for senior citizens in the next state budget.

Speaking in this regard, he said that his cabinet colleague Lakshmi Hebbalkar’s request to give a Rs 2,000 pension to the elderly will be “seriously considered”.

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“A decision on this will be taken in the next budget,” he said on Sunday while honouring the seniors who received state awards in various fields.

Currently, eligible elderly people in the state are getting Rs 1,000 on a monthly basis.

“Treating elders with respect and adopting their life values ​​is the respect we give to elders,” he said, adding it was better to live a meaningful life as long as we have it.

In July, Siddaramaiah, who also holds the finance portfolio, presented the state Budget for 2023-24. The Congress government which recently came to power in the southern state had increased the budget size from Rs 265,720 crore in 2022-23 to Rs 327,747 crore in 2023-24, a Rs 62,027 crore increase with a growth rate of 23 per cent.

It was Siddaramaiah’s seventh budget as a Chief Minister, having presented six during his tenure as Karnataka CM from 2013 to 2018.

The state government termed the budget to be their ‘Guarantee Budget’ and asserted that it fulfils all the five key promises it made to the people ahead of the assembly polls. For the implementation of those pre-poll promises, a total of Rs 35,410 crore has been allocated in the budget.

The Congress party’s five “guarantees” mentioned in the manifesto were 200 units of free power to all; Rs 2,000 monthly assistance to the woman head of every family; 10 kg of rice free to all members of a BPL family; Rs 3,000 every month for graduate youth; Rs 1,500 for diploma holders (age group of 18-25) for two years; and free travel in government buses for women.

Congress bagged 135 seats in the May 10 elections to the 224-member Karnataka Assembly ousting the then-ruling BJP, which got 66 seats while the Janata Dal (Secular) secured 19 seats.