Hyderabad: The Telangana government on Thursday announced that 10 lakh new beneficiaries would get pensions under the Aasra scheme from August 15. This will be in addition to the existing 36 lakh pensions which are being provided to the poor. The decision was taken in a cabinet meeting chaired by chief minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR).
In a meeting that lasted for over five hours, KCR was informed by government officials that Telangana registered a growth rate of 15.3 percent revenue in this financial year. A statement from KCR’s office said that the growth is “noteworthy” growth despite the funds due to Telangana under CSS and various schemes from the central government decreased by (minus) -12.9 percent.
“The state revenues would have been increased further and register a growth rate of 22 percent if there is no cuts in the FRMB limits,” said the statement from KCR’s office after the meeting. It added that the Telangana Finance Department explained that the state received Rs 47,312 crore of funds under CSS in the last 8 years.
“In the last financial year, the state government has spent Rs. 1. 84 lakh crores. Out of which only Rs. 5200 crores have been received under CSS schemes. It means that less than 3 percent of the total,” said the CMO release.
Independence day celebrations
Moreover, the cabinet also decided that on the eve of Swatantra Bharat Vajrotsavalu (independence day celebrations), 75 prisoners will be released. The proposed special Assembly session and local body meeting on August 21 organised on the eve of Vajrotsava celebrations has also been cancelled.
It was done so based on requests from peoples representatives that August 21 is the last auspicious day for marriages and other programmes. Moreover, the Telangana cabinet also decided to hold Mass singing of national Anthem at 11.30 am on August 16 .
