Centre provides 13.06% of welfare pension while Kerala shoulders lion's share of 'survival kits' in state
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The cyber space has been witnessing heated arguments and fudged stats over the contribution of state and Centre shares in the distribution of survival kits consisting essential provisions and welfare pension to the people in the state as it had played a pivotal role in ensuring the second term for the LDF government.
But the stats available with the Finance department and Department of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs give a clear picture on the state and centre share of contributions in the ‘survival kit’ and ‘welfare pensions’.
According to the stats provided by the Finance Minister K N Balagopal in the assembly, the state gives different type of social security and welfare pensions to 54,23,851 people in the state for which the state needs to shell out around Rs 831.11 cr per month as per the data in May 2021. Out of the Rs 831.11 cr being spent as pensions, the state share would come around 86.9 % while the Centre share would come around 13.06 %. Similarly, out of the total 54,23,851 pensioners, as many as 6,88,329 beneficiaries including elderly, widow, and disability pensioners in the BPL category get the central share of 13.06 %.
In the case of survival kits, the state spends an average Rs 410 crore, as per the latest data in May 2021, to distribute survival kits consisting essential provisions to an average 85 lakhs families. The state has spent a total of Rs 4648.29 crore for the distribution of kits so far and the state government extended the kits to May and June considering the second wave of the Covid-19.
According to G R Anil, Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, "The Centre has not provided any financial contribution for the distribution of kits consisting essential provisions. But, 1106.664 MT pulses received for the priority ration card holders under the PMGKAY scheme used in the kits after its distribution among the priority card holders."
But the stats available with the department reveal that the Centre has allocated a total of 6,64,090.313 MT rice, 99095.3 MT wheat and 30,269 MT pulses to distribute among various category people including migrants in different times in the last one year, which were distributed separately.