T’puram: State govt on Thursday sanctioned Rs 1,095.17 crore for the distribution of July pensions under the social security pension scheme and welfare fund board pension scheme, benefiting nearly 57.7 lakh beneficiaries across the state. The amount includes Rs 941.73 crore for social security pensions and Rs 130.44 crore for welfare fund board pensions, besides Rs 24.76 crore towards Centre’s share under the National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP).According to finance department orders issued on Thursday, Rs 941.73 crore has been sanctioned as the state’s share for distributing July social security pensions to 51,10,908 beneficiaries. Of them, 27,95,912 beneficiaries will receive the pension in bank accounts, while 23,14,996 beneficiaries will receive it through direct home delivery. An additional Rs 24.76 crore has been sanctioned as the NSAP component for 8,46,456 beneficiaries covered under the Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme, Indira Gandhi National Disability Pension Scheme and Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension Scheme.The social security pension beneficiaries include 30,23,442 recipients of old-age pension, 13,28,789 widow pension beneficiaries, 3,88,341 disability pension beneficiaries, 2,88,189 agricultural workers’ pension beneficiaries and 82,147 unmarried women aged above 50 years.Govt also sanctioned Rs 130.44 crore for July pensions to 6,60,196 beneficiaries covered under 16 welfare fund boards that receive govt assistance. The largest allocations are for the farmers’ pension scheme (Rs 40.17 crore for 2,00,842 beneficiaries), tailoring workers’ welfare fund (Rs 26.5 crore for 1,32,500 beneficiaries), coir workers’ welfare fund (Rs 16.19 crore for 80,939 beneficiaries) and cashew workers’ welfare fund (Rs 11.75 crore for 58,775 beneficiaries).The finance department directed that pension distribution under both schemes should commence on July 24 and be completed by Aug 3.
