Aasara pensions: Govt receives 38,000 applications in a month

After Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s grand declaration in December that the age limit for Aasara pensions would be decreased, the Hyderabad Collectorate has been flooding with applications from claimants of the pension scheme. As many as 38,000 new applications have been sent in over the last month alone, as opposed to the usual number of 500-1,000 new applications that the Collectorate usually receives. There are nearly 2 lakh Aasara beneficiaries in the city.

According to the Chief Minister, the new pensions scheme will be initiated from the next financial year.

According to Hyderabad district revenue officials, the authorities have started accepting applications from new beneficiaries. This is being done particularly keeping the reduction in the eligibility age of beneficiaries from 64 to 57 in mind.

“The revenue department officials have already collected the revised voters’ list from the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC). Based on the list, the new eligible beneficiaries will be identified,” the officials said.

“Until now, we have received 38,000 new applications. We will prepare a list of beneficiaries accordingly and send them to the Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP) department for the release of funds,” added the revenue authorities.

They further added that once they receive the orders from the State government, the officials would conduct a field-level inquiry and collect the Aadhar, bank account details. “The Collectorate will approve the final list of eligible beneficiaries,” they said.