Andhra spent over Rs 50,000 cr on social welfare pensions in 18 months: Minister
Machilipatnam (AP) (PTI): Andhra Pradesh is leading the way in social welfare spending, with a significant focus on pensions, state Minister Kollu Ravindra has said.
The state has spent Rs 50,763 crore on pensions in the last 18 months, he added.
"Andhra Pradesh is the only state in India that provides a large number of pensions," the minister holding the mines and geology and excise portfolios said.
Speaking to the media on Monday, Ravindra said the state government has allocated a substantial budget of Rs 34,000 crore for the NTR Bharosa pension scheme, benefiting 63,25,999 people, as per December figures.
He added that Rs 2,739 crore was distributed in pensions on December 1, while 1,08,000 spouse pensions were sanctioned after the coalition government came to power.
Not a single spouse pension was given during the previous YSRCP government, he claimed.
"Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu personally distributes pensions to the beneficiaries," Ravindra said.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
