Andhra Pradesh Cabinet sat for its first meeting today and took many crucial decisions.
The Cabinet decided to give increased pensions (4000 Rupees) and arrears of 3000 Rupees to the beneficiaries from July 1st.
I&PR Minister Parthasarthy made a key announcement on this issue.
“The increased pensions to more than 60 Lakh Beneficiaries will be distributed by Secretariat Staff from July 1st,” the Minister revealed.
It is to be noted that Secretariat Staff are going to replace the Volunteers.
This decision has sparked speculation if the Government is going for a revamp of the system or scrapping it totally.
YS Jagan Mohan Reddy brought the Volunteers system to keep people on his hold. Each volunteer is allotted fifty houses. People are totally dependent on them as if they are defacto MLAs or MPs.
They were Jagan’s observers and also pamphlet givers of the YSR Congress.
The impact of Volunteers is the much-talked-about topic in this election. Even Chandrababu feared their impact and had to fight legal battles to keep them away from the Election Process.
Even then, it looked impossible and so, he had to appease them with increased pay.
Even after that, we have seen around 1.08 Lakh Volunteers resign to work for YSR Congress.
Those in duty tried to create propaganda that Chandrababu is the reason for not giving pensions door to door in the election time.
But with the results, it is clear that People have rejected the Volunteers system.
We will have to see if the system will be completely removed!
When media quizzed the Minister if the Volunteers are set aside, he said, “The Government will think how to use them. But Pensions distribution is completely the responsibility of the Secretariat Staff”.
