Hyderabad: The Congress govt has decided to start disbursing Cheyutha pensions to three lakh new beneficiaries from Oct.
Panchayat raj and rural development minister Seethakka has directed officials to take steps to launch the new pensions in Oct and ensure that eligible beneficiaries receive them before the Dasara festival.
Seethakka said additional staff should be deployed, if required, to accelerate the verification process and avoid delays in extending the pension benefits to eligible applicants. Officials said the new pensions will be sanctioned to eligible single women, widows, persons with disabilities, toddy tappers, handloom workers and those affected by filariasis and blood-related disorders such as thalassemia, sickle cell disease and haemophilia. The minister instructed officials to expedite the field-level verification of applications received for the new pensions. She directed Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP) CEO Divya Devarajan to speed up the verification and take all necessary measures to complete the process within the stipulated time. The minister stressed that full-scale pension coverage should be ensured for eligible single women and widows. She directed officials to take steps to sanction pensions to all those who had applied and were found eligible under the prescribed criteria.