Rs 1,497 cr released for 61 lakh beneficiaries: Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy

VIJAYAWADA: Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Minister Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy has said the state government released Rs 1,497.62 crore to all village/ward secretariats for distribution of monthly pension for the month of May to 61.46 lakh beneficiaries.

In a statement issued on Monday, Peddireddy said the pension will be paid between June 1 and 3. Stating that as many as 29,961 new pensions were sanctioned in May, including 28,235 regular pensions and 1,726 health pensions, he said the government is spending an additional Rs 8.66 crore for the purpose.

Asserting that the pension amount will be disbursed at the pensioners’ doorstep through Pensioner Biometric Authentication, IRIS Authentication, Real Time Identification of Beneficiary System (RBIS), Pensioner Facial Authentication and Family Member’s Biometric Authentication (in case of failure of the first three), he said 2.66 lakh volunteers and 15,000 welfare education assistants/ward welfare development secretaries will take part in the disbursement.

Also, stating that sarpanchs and ward members were engaged in door-to-door visits along with field functionaries, the Panchayat Raj and Rural Development minister has urged Deputy Chief Minister (Medical and Health) Alla Kalikrishna Srinivas (Nani) to consider the former as frontline warriors, and arrange for Covid vaccination for them, irrespective of their age, on a priority. In a letter, the minister said 13,095 sarpanches and 1,30,930 ward members assumed charges to their posts on April 3, and are constantly monitoring an intensive sanitation drive since July 8.