Withdraw GO on screening pensioners, demands YSRC

Hyderabad, Sept 18 (INN): Demanding withdrawal of the GO to authorize committees to screen pensioners in the State with a breakneck speed, YSR Congress has said the move has a hidden agenda laden with political motives and sans transparency which will lead to discrimination.

'Pensioners are bereft of any other source of income and the State issuing a GO to set up committees from mandal level to identify the eligible candidates is only to cut down the number of existing pensioners. Our Party objects to the GO and demands its immediate withdrawal,' Party spokesperson Vasireddy Padma told reporters here on Thursday.

We have no objection to the Government weeding out bogus pension claims, but the exercise should be carried out methodically and should be acceptable to transparent governance. The GO is totally against any proven methodology as the manner in which members of the committee are taken shows that it will be filled with TDP sympathizers or cadre.

The mammoth task of reviewing the existing list of pensioners in two days is not possible and the deadline set seems to only to benefit TDP cadre and sympathizers. The Chief Minister is supposed to govern the entire State as one unit and look beyond party affiliations as YSR had shown the way while implementing welfare schemes.

'Chandrababu Naidu is trying to emulate YSR, in terms of padayatra and welfare schemes but when it comes to implementation his real intentions are coming out in the open. We are not opposed to weeding out to bogus claims but have doubts in the manner in which it is carried out as per the GO.

More so, why the pending claims of nearly 15 lakh applications are not being considered is the question as Chandrababu Naidu has time and again told people during his electioneering that they will get pensions once TDP comes to power.

After assuming power, forget new pensions, the government is trying to slash the existing ones through arbitrary means. For other welfare schemes as well, there are too many riders which are shrinking the size of beneficiaries that shows the double standards of the Chief Minister,' she said.

The tall claim of Chandrababu Naidu that he has the experience is being shown out in going back on election promises and finding ways to dilute the welfare schemes. The proposed Pension Mela on October 2 will see many eligible heads rolling from the pension list which is why we are opposing the GO and demanding its immediate withdrawal, she said.