Telangana: Congress promises Rs 4,000 pension for widows, senior citizens

Khammam (Telangana), July 2 (IANS) In a major promise ahead of Assembly elections in Telangana, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi announced on Sunday that if the party is voted to power, widows and senior citizens will get a monthly pension of Rs.4,000 each.

Rahul Gandhi unveiled the promise at the mammoth public meeting ‘Telangana Jana Garjana’ organised here Sunday evening.

He recalled that the party had already announced farmers’ declaration at Warangal and youth declaration at Hyderabad.

“Today we are announcing another historic step. Senior citizens and widows will get Rs.4,000 each as pension every month,” he said.

The BRS government currently provides Rs.2,016 per month as the pension for senior citizens and widows under Aasara Pension Scheme.

He also promised that if voted to power, the Congress will return Podu lands to tribals. He said all those lands taken away by KCR government from farmers and Dalits will also be returned to them.

Welcoming former Khammam MP Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy into the Congress party, Rahul Gandhi said he accepted the ideology of the party. Srinivasa Reddy was recently suspended from Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) for anti-party activities.

The Congress leader noted that Khammam is a stronghold of the Congress party. He told people that they always supported Congress and the ideology of the Congress party is in their heart and blood.

Rahul Gandhi also declared that the doors of the Congress party are open for all those who quit Congress party in the past. “For all those who agree with our ideology, our doors are open. We have nothing to do with those who support the ideology of BJP and BRS,” he said.

He reiterated that the Congress party’s ideology is to unite the country while on the other side there is the ideology of hate and violence. He said during his Bharat Jodo Yatra, the entire country supported the Congress ideology and vowed that they will not allow hate and violence to spread.

As the public meeting also marked the culmination of 1,360 km long padyatra of Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, Rahul Gandhi felicitated him.

He thanked Bhatti for undertaking the yatra and raising the issues of people and weaker sections.

Terming Congress workers as the lions of the party, he said they did not leave the party even in testing times and despite the repression by the BRS.