VIJAYAWADA: Notwithstanding the claims of Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy that his government in the last six months have introduced a plethora of schemes to benefit every section of the society, the very first promise made by him on the day he was sworn in as the Chief Minister, remains unfulfilled, said APCC joint secretary Nuthalapati Ravikanth and warned of legal action if the mistake is not rectified.
Showing the information provided by Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP) under the Right to Information Act two days ago, he said as against the promised old-age pension for people between 60 and 65 years from July 1, 2019, not a single person in that age group was paid.
“On May 30, after taking oath, Jagan announced enhancement of social security pension from Rs 2,000 to Rs 2,250 per month and said the lower age limit will be 60 years instead of 65 and signed the related file on the occasion.
On the same day, GO 103 was issued, in which it was clearly mentioned that age for old age pensioners has been reduced from 65 years to 60 years and the enhanced pensions will come into effect from July 1,2019,” he said and added only part of the promise — enhancement of pension amount — was implemented.
In the RTI reply, SERP director Dasari Sudhakar said that from June 1 to September 25, a total - 4,00,134 old age pension applications were received and eligible will be paid pension from January 2020. “In other words, those eligible pensioners were denied 6 months of pensions, which amounts to Rs 540 crore. It is nothing but cheating,” Ravikanth said.
The number of old-age pensioners was 23,30,378 and it got reduced to 22,74,411 in Sept. Where have they gone?