Hyderabad: In a first of its kind, Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu walked up to a tribal family at dawn on Monday and delivered a fresh installment of social security pension to it at an ST Colony in Penumaka village of Tadepalli mandal in Guntur district.
By doing so, the Chief Minister sent more than one message, first being that he is a people’s leader and live amidst them contrary to his predecessor Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, who has been accused of living aloof in palaces and away from people.
Naidu also scored a point over the volunteer system without which his newly elected government could disburse the social security pensions to more beneficiaries than the previous government. He dismantled the myth that volunteer system is indispensable as his government could disburse 95 per cent pensions on the first day, highest ever in the last one year.
“The previous YSRC government disrupted the pension disbursal and forced the beneficiaries to queue up before banks in hot summer. It killed 33 aged persons just to show the TD in poor light and make electoral gains,” Naidu alleged.
The third message Naidu sent was that he delivered his poll promise of giving away not only the enhanced monthly pension but the arrears as well. About the same time, during his interaction with the beneficiaries, Naidu also stressed the need for achieving self-economic sustenance in the long run taking assistance from the state.
Initiating the enhanced social security pension disbursal, as per his poll promise, the Chief Minister arrived at the house at 6 am sharp and handed over the pension amount to Banavath Pamula Naik, his widowed daughter Islavathi Bai and his wife Sitha Bai. In a brief interaction with the CM, Naik informed him that they were not having a house.
Naidu promised to provide them a house and directed the officials to get this done. He also enquired about the education of the children in the family. The Chief Minister was accompanied by his son and minister Nara Lokesh and other party leaders as he arrived at the ST Colony. Naidu said he was delighted at the disbursal of pension under NTR Barosa scheme. He attributed credit for the social security cover for the poor to former chief minister late N.T. Rama Rao for starting the first pension in the country by disbursing `35 per head, which was subsequently enhanced to `75.
In 2014, the pension used to be `200 and it was raised to `1,000 and further to `2,000 and thereafter to `3,000 and now to `4,000. “We are going to spend `33,100 crore for welfare pension disbursal per annum. In the next five years, we would spend `1.65 lakh crore for pensions,” he said. Later, the CM warned officials that he would suspend them in case they set up curtains in the places of his visit as was the practice in the past. He said, “I will develop the Mangalagiri segment in an unprecedented manner. I have made a resolution to make AP free of poverty from Penumaka village itself.”
