Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday announced that the Aasara pension that is given to aged persons and widows would be enhanced from Rs 2,000 to Rs 4,000.
The assurance, announced at the massive Telangana Garjana meeting in Khammam is significant in the backdrop of various surveys indicating that the BRS vote is intact among beneficiaries of the pension scheme, while it has lost its base considerably among younger voters.
The announcement of doubling all pensions, currently fixed at `2,000 per month by the BRS government, led to another thunderous ovation from the sea of people, who made it to the venue despite the allegedly numerous hardships imposed by the ruling party members, from denial of RTC buses to police blockades and seizure of vehicles and cabs, to ensure most volunteers and the general public did not find it easy to attend the Telangana Jana Garjana meeting.
But those who came, including those who arrived from other districts, did roar every time the name of either TPCC president A.Revanth Reddy or CLP leader Mallu Bhatti Vikaramarka, who concluded his 110-day-odd long, over 1,200-km People’s March, or former MP Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy’s name was mentioned.
Srinivas Reddy, who formally joined the Congress at the event, was seen trying to calm people down when they erupted into a “PM, PM” chant the moment Rahul Gandhi began to deliver his lecture.
The announcement of the Cheyutha scheme completed the trilogy, after the Warangal Farmers’ Declaration and Hyderabad Youth Declaration.Gandhi, who began his speech to a rapturous response by saying, “I am delighted to be back in Telangana after the Bharat Jodo Yatra again…”, announced that the Congress government which will be formed after the next state Assembly elections, will give a pension of Rs 4,000 per month to senior citizens, physically handicapped, artisans and other categories.
The Congress will repeat the Karnataka phenomenon in Telangana, where the party stood with common and poor people, with the Dalits, tribals, OBCs, minorities, women, farmers, students, unemployed youth, small business folks against the might of a corrupt oppressive state government, backed by big billionaires, and defeated them, the former AICC president thundered at the mammoth public meeting on Sunday evening.
