(Image source from: Twitter.com/TelanganaCMO)

KCR Announces 1 Million New Old-Age Pensions:- The government of Telangana has announced pensions for one million old-age people and the age limit was reduced from 65 to 57 years. All these will fall under the new pension scheme and not for the existing pensioners. Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao announced these new pensions under the Aasara Scheme on the occasion of the 75th Independence Day celebrations. The scheme details will reach the Camp Office of the Chief Minister in Pragati Bhavan on Thursday and it will be implemented from August 15th. KCR said that these pensions are the social security for their future and they cannot be considered as freebies. He said that the government of Telangana is implementing these schemes on humanitarian grounds.

As per the records, there are 3.6 million people who are aged above 60 years of age and are receiving a pension of Rs 2016 per month as per the Aasara scheme. With the reduction of the age limit, another 10 lakh people will get eligibility and they will be added to the list of the beneficiaries. All the new pension cards will have bar codes and they will be issued to 46 lakh pensioners told KCR. Telangana Rashtra Samithi told that this was one of the promises made by the party to reduce the age of pensioners before the December 2018 Assembly elections. The scheme was put on hold because of the state's financial stress and the coronavirus pandemic. The state government got it delayed as the identification of the beneficiaries was delayed. KCR now announced the implementation.