Jharkhand News: A total of 6.6 lakh pension beneficiaries were registered in Jharkhand in 19 years since it was carved out of Bihar in 2000, which has increased to 21.45 lakh till March 27 this year.
Jharkhand Pension Scheme: People have benefited from various pension schemes on a large scale in the state and the number of beneficiaries has increased manifold. The Jharkhand government has increased the number of beneficiaries under several pension schemes by over 200 per cent since coming to power in December 2019, according to data from the Department of Women, Child Development and Social Security. In fact, in November 2000, a total of 6.6 lakh pension beneficiaries were registered in the 19 years since the new state was carved out of Bihar, which has increased to 21.45 lakh till March 27 this year.
At present, the state government is giving pension to people in five categories and in the financial year 2022-23, about Rs 2,400 crore has been spent on pension schemes. Let us tell you that till March 27, 2023, 14.25 lakh beneficiaries are getting benefits under the old age pension scheme, which were only 3.45 lakh till December 31, 2019.
At the same time, the number of especially vulnerable tribal group pension beneficiaries has increased from 52,336 to 70,577. While destitute women pension beneficiaries have increased from 1.72 to 3.79 lakh. With this, the number of beneficiaries under the HIV Aids Aid Pension Scheme has increased from 3,375 to 5,778. While the number of disability pension beneficiaries has increased from 87,796 to 2.44 lakh.
200 percent increase in the number of beneficiaries
Actually, many states give pension to a large number of people. For example, Bihar alone has over 42 lakh old age pension beneficiaries, which is far more than the total coverage of Jharkhand, but Bihar has an estimated population of around 12 crores, three times that of Jharkhand. More than this, there has been a huge increase in the number of beneficiaries in Jharkhand in the last three years. On adding the number of beneficiaries of all categories, there has been an increase of 200 percent.
With this, now any person above 60 years of age in Jharkhand is eligible for old age pension. In this case, the beneficiary will have to fulfill only two criteria. In this, the person should not be a tax payer and the other person should not be already taking any kind of pension.
The government started this program,
while the ‘Sarkar Aapke Dwar’ program was run twice in all the districts by CM Hemant Soren. Along with this, lakhs of beneficiaries were registered under several pension schemes by organizing camps in rural areas. At the same time, officials have been instructed to connect more and more people with pension schemes. Let us tell you that under the National Social Assistance Program (NSAP), the central government gives pension under three categories to 12.43 lakh beneficiaries in Jharkhand.
In this, a benefit of up to Rs 200-500 is given. At the same time, the Jharkhand government has also introduced a bill to increase the pension under NSAP benefit to Rs 1000, covering the additional cost. Thus the total number of pension beneficiaries in Jharkhand is 33.88 lakh, of which 21.45 lakh are covered under state schemes and 12.43 lakh are covered under NSAP.
