New Aasara pensions from July or August: IT Minister KT Rama Rao

NAGARKURNOOL: IT Minister KT Rama Rao on Saturday assured that eligible beneficiaries who have crossed 57 years of age would start getting Aasara pensions from July or August, as promised by the State government. He said that officials would be identifying and issuing the new pensions after visiting villages across the State. It may be mentioned here that only people over 62 years of age were earlier eligible for Aasara pensions.

Addressing public meetings at Kollapur and Bijinapally mandal headquarters during his visit to Nagarkurnool district where he participated in various developmental programmes, the Minister promised that those who didn’t have ration cards need not worry as these would also be given to all eligible soon.

Interestingly, the Minister did not make any mention of the violence at the Secunderabad Railway Station during the protest against the Centre’s Agnipath armed forces recruitment scheme on Friday.

During his daylong tour, Rama Rao laid the foundation stone for construction of a link canal from Singotam reservoir to Gopaldinne reservoir, which will be laid at a cost of 150 crore in Kollapur town. Addressing the gathering there, he said that Kollapur will soon become a junction for AP and Telangana, once the Somasila Barriage being constructed across the Krishna River was completed. 

Once Palamuru Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme becomes a reality, 1,80,000 acres in Kollapur Assembly constituency will be irrigated, the Minister said. Also assuring that he would try his best to get sanction for Bacharam high-level canal and horticultural polytechnic college in the constituency, Rama Rao nudged local MLA B Harshavardhan Reddy and Tourism Minister V Srinivas Goud to take up an ecotourism project at Amaragiri, in addition to 35 tourism cottages which have been constructed at Somasila. 

He also laid a foundation stone for Markandeya Lift Irrigation Scheme in Bijinapally mandal, which envisions irrigating 7,200 acres in 17 Lambada hamlets which fell under five gram panchayats in the mandal, which couldn’t access irrigation through Mahatma Gandhi Kalwakurthy Lift Irrigation Scheme (MGKLIS) , due to being located at a higher altitude. `77 crore would be spent on the lift irrigation works.
Addressing the people in Bijinapally, Rama Rao said that Congress couldn’t get a single degree college for Nagarkurnool district in 75 years despite health ministers representing the constituency, but TRS could get a medical college for the district. Comparing Congress to a dead body, he said that the grand old party had become an expired medicine which had no future. 

Talking about the various welfare schemes of the State government, Rama Rao said that Aasara pensions were increased from 29 lakh beneficiaries in 2014 to 40 lakh presently, and that while government used to spend Rs 800 crore on the scheme before 2014, presently Rs10,000 crore was being spent on Aasara pensions. Rama Rao also said that 973 social welfare residential schools (Gurukuls) were established after 2014, and that 20,000 crore has been spent on fees reimbursement in the last eight years. 

eligibility & status 

■ People over 57 years of age are now eligible for Aasara pensions. Earlier, only those above 62 years of age were eligible
■ Officials would be identifying and issuing the new pensions after visiting villages across the State