Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath disbursed the quarterly pension money amounting to Rs 2,955.36 crore directly into the accounts of 56 lakh elderly, 31 lakh destitute women, 11.17 lakh specially-abled people, and 11,400 leprosy patients on Wednesday.
A total of 98.26 lakh beneficiaries of social security pension schemes received the money online.
The beneficiaries, including destitute women, elderly persons, leprosy patients and specially-abled people from Bijnor, Varanasi, Saharanpur, Chitrakoot and Deoria interacted with the chief minister through virtual medium and expressed their gratitude for doubling the pension amount.
Interacting with the beneficiaries, Yogi said that the government understood the sentiments of every deprived and the needy, including elderly, destitute women, ‘divyangjans’ and hence it had doubled the monthly pension amount.
“Before 2017, the specially-abled used to get Rs 300 as pension and it was first increased to Rs 500 and now Rs 1000 is being provided to them,” he added.
Elaborating on the other welfare measures undertaken by the Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state, the chief minister said, “Till 2017, only 37.47 lakh elderly people used to get Rs 500 monthly pension which has been increased threefold. Today they are getting Rs 3,000 quarterly and in these four and a half years as many as 19.47 lakh new beneficiaries have been connected with this pension. Also, over 13.68 lakh additional destitute women, 2.34 lakh specially-abled persons and 6,665 deprived leprosy patients have also started receiving the pensions.”
Yogi said that along with the administration, every beneficiary should also try to spread awareness among the people regarding the scheme so that if there was anyone who was eligible and was not getting the benefit could avail the benefit.
“Ensure that not a single eligible person is deprived of the pension and not a single ineligible person takes advantage of it,” he said.
Mentioning the challenges faced by the people during the coronavirus pandemic period, the chief minister said that if someone in a family had been untimely affected by the infection, then the family was also getting an amount of Rs 50,000 and the Chief Minister's Bal Sewa Yojana for education and maintenance of the children had also been started.
Bajranglal, a specially-abled youth of Varanasi, thanked the chief minister for increasing the pension. At the same time, on being asked by Yogi, he said that he made toothpaste and sold it door to door with the help of the tricycle provided by the government. The chief minister expressed happiness over Bajrang’s effort in sending his daughter to school and assured all help.
Ravita, a destitute of Saharanpur, also thanked the chief minister for Bal Sewa Yojana and the financial assistance of Rs 50,000 during COVID-19 and appealed to Yogi to appoint her in Anganwadi centre. The chief minister immediately directed the district magistrate to take action on Ravita's application.