Thiruvananthapuram: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that the government has a plan to increase the welfare pension in the state.
The nominal central contribution for social security pension is only two percent of the amount required to pay the pension. Even in the face of severe financial crunch, the government is adopting an approach of keeping the underprivileged.
National Old Age Pension, National Widow Pension and National Disability Pension are available to only 6.80 lakh people on an average. At the same time, the Chief Minister said that the beneficiaries of the social security pension of the state government will be 62 lakh.
While the income limit for the central government benefit is Rs 25,000 per annum, the state government has fixed the income limit at Rs 1 lakh per annum.
1700 crore will be disbursed as part of the arrears in the financial year 2024-25. Kerala is facing central discrimination from 2021. 19000 crores shortfall in central grant in three years. The chief minister also alleged that the tax allocation was cut along with the economic sanctions.
