Aasara turns nightmare

Hyderabad: The huge demand for the Telangana government’s much touted Rs 1,000 Aasara pension scheme for the poor is turning out to be a nightmare for ruling party legislators.

Ministers, legislators and ex-legislators, while visiting their Assembly constituencies are accosted by those whose names have either been removed or are missing due to age or other criteria.

The scheme is the most sought after  since the government hiked the amount five times from Rs 200 per month. It costs the exchequer about Rs 4,000 crore.

“There are problems especially in the identification of age. Some people claim they are 65 and above, but documents like Aadhaar show they are younger. We are trying to sort out the issue,” said TRS legislator Jeevan Reddy.

To make the most of the situation, Telangana Congress chief  Ponnala Laxmaiah has said that the party will collect names of missing pensioners across the state by January 5.  

Many ruling party leaders in private admit that the Aasara scheme is proving to be troublesome for the government due to huge demand.

“Once a person gets a pension which could be legal or illegal, it’s difficult to remove his,” said an MLA.