– Rajesh Mishra
Lucknow : As soon as the second term of the Yogi government starts in Uttar Pradesh, the elderly, destitute women and the differently-abled will get the gift of increased pension in the state.
During the assembly election campaign itself, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had promised to increase the amount of pension if the government was formed. After the swearing in, now preparations are being made to implement this promise. Earlier, in its previous tenure, the Yogi government had doubled the amount of pension given to weaker sections by Rs 500 per month.
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1500 per month announced
However, before starting the enhanced pension, the Uttar Pradesh government is getting the old age and destitute women, widows and disabled persons pension scheme to be checked afresh. Action is being taken to link the bank accounts of all eligible people receiving this pension with Aadhaar. Significantly, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in its election manifesto had announced to increase the pension given to weaker sections to Rs 1,500 per month.
A total of 98 lakh people are getting the benefit of this pension in the state.
According to officials, before implementing the increased pension, the government wants to keep the eligible people only by removing the ineligible from this list. At present, there are 56 lakh beneficiaries of old age pension scheme in the state and 31 lakh beneficiaries of widow pension scheme while 11 lakh are handicapped. In this way, a total of 98 lakh people are getting the benefit of this pension in the state.
In the meeting of the Council of Ministers held under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in December last year, the pension amount of old people registered in the Social Welfare Department living below the poverty line was increased from five hundred rupees per month to one thousand rupees and destitute/widow women. It was decided to increase the pension amount from four hundred rupees per month to one thousand.
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At present, a monthly pension of Rs 100 is being given to these sections. The enhanced pension amount is being sent directly to all the beneficiaries in their bank accounts. Now before the Vidhan Sabha elections, the BJP in its resolution letter had announced to increase the pension amount of the old age, widow and destitute women and Divyangjan to Rs 1500 per month. Before implementing this announcement, an exercise is being made to prepare a fresh list of these beneficiaries.
Preparing the actual list of beneficiaries
It is worth noting that during the tenure of the Samajwadi government before 2017, there were allegations of giving pension on the basis of fake documents to all the beneficiaries in the old age and widow pension scheme. Despite this allegation, a large number of fake beneficiaries could not be removed from the list. Now the actual list of beneficiaries is being prepared by linking Aadhaar.