Centre seeks info on single woman pension scheme

​Hyderabad: The pension scheme for single woman recently announced by Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao seems to have caught the attention of the Central government.

According to senior officials, after the announcement of the scheme in the State Assembly, the Chief Minister’s office and Women Welfare and Child Development departments were flooded with queries from many quarters including the Union government, who wanted to know the details of the scheme and how the government proposes to implement it.

The State government has forwarded some of the details to the Central government on the new pension policy for single woman which are under preparation. It would furnish the details of the full scheme once the guidelines are prepared.

A senior official said that the government proposes to launch the welfare scheme from June 2 which happens to be the Telangana Formation Day.

Under the scheme, Rs 1000 pension would be provided to every poor single woman from the next financial year. The scheme is likely to benefit about 3 to 4 lakh women.

To ensure that the scheme can be implemented from June 2, the Chief Minister has instructed the Collectors to register the names of eligible women.

He has also asked the legislators to take the responsibility to see that all eligible women get enrolled under the scheme. The State government has already taken up the exercise to identify the beneficiaries under the new scheme.

The data collected by the government under SKS (Sakala Janula Survey) in 2014 would be utilized to identify the beneficiaries who would be linked with Aadhar card.

Preparations are being made to implement the scheme in all districts simultaneously, the sources added.