With an aim to extend social cover to all the BPl families the Samajwadi Party Government has launched an ambitious pension scheme under which beneficiary families would get Rs 500 per month and this amount may gradually grow annually provided beneficiary educates and immunizes his children.
“This scheme will be start from November 10 though the beneficiaries would get pension from the retrospective effect from April, 2014,” Chie Secretary Alok Ranjan told reporters here on Thursday.
The Samajwadi Pension scheme was launched before the lok Sabha elections in January last replacing Rani laxmibai Pension Yojana in phased manner. The Scheme is expected to benefit about 40 lakh rural families living below poverty line. The government would be spending Rs 2400 crore this fiscal to implement the scheme which will have impact on about 20 million people of the state.
“In November itself the families would receive seven months’ pension from April to October which will be directly sent to their banks,” Ranjan said adding: “The scheme will benefit 12 lakh schedule caste and schedule tribes, 10 lakh Muslims and remaining 18 lakh backwards and upper caste poor. Parents of the Handicapped children would also receive the pension if their family is found eligible.”
Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav during his budget speech recently had said that Samajwadi Pension would take care of unemployment allowances scheme which has been shelved.
The Chief Secretary said that July 15 is the last date for submitting the application for the pension while by October 15 all the formalities would be completed.
He said that by June 24, over 52.50 lakh application have already been received of which about 23.25 lakh applications have been uploaded on the concerned software.
Principal Secretary Social welfare Sunil Kumar said that the scheme will increase the social growth of the state as the pension is linked with education, literacy and health. “By implementing the scheme, state aims to achieve the literacy rate of 85 per cent by 2017 while immunisation programme of the children would go up to 90 per cent from 72 per cent at present,” he said.
The Samajwadi Pension would provide a monthly pension of Rs 500 each rural family for the year 2014-15 and the pension amount would be raised gradually by Rs 50 in the subsequent financial years provided certain conditions are fulfilled. The maximum pension limit will be Rs. 750 per month. The selection of the families to be benefited would be done at the gram panchayat level.
Conditions for pension hike of Rs 50 per year would depend upon compulsory education for children in the age group of 6 to 14 years with at least 70 per cent attendance in school, making adult members in the family literate and immunisation and regular health check up of children.
Families who are receiving any type of other pension, owns a motorized vehicle, Income tax payee, Government employee or Employee in a private firm would not be eligible for the Samajwadi pension.