AP cabinet approves DA hike for pensioners

Treading on the path to woo more voters, the state government has enhanced dearness allowance (DA) of four lakh pensioners on par with its employees. The DA enhancement is effective from January this year.

The state cabinet, which met here in the morning, also decided to clear the DA arrears payable for pensioners from 2001 to December 2003 in the next two financial years in installments.

An amount of Rs 356 crore was sanctioned towards DA arrears for this period as well as the two months of January and February this year.

Briefing the media on the cabinet decisions, S Chandramohan Reddy, the minister for information and public relations, said that the enhanced portion of DA for January and February would be paid along with the pension amount payable for March. Pensioners are likely to get benefited to the extent of about Rs 500 per month from the DA enhancement.

This will impose an additional financial burden of about Rs 240 crore on the state exchequer besides the one-time payment of Rs 356 crore towards DA arrears.

The cabinet also approved the payment of interim relief arrears by Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) for the period from July 2001 to December 31, 2003 at a rate of 7.5 per cent, which is exactly half of what the company is now paying.

The company has already been paying interim relief of 15 per cent from January 2004. The minister said that the payment of interim relief would be implemented till the time JBCCI (Joint Bi-partite Committee on Coal Industry) announces new wage award for the coal mine employees. It gave approval for part payment of arrears of interim relief to Singareni coal mine employees, amounting to Rs 116.40 crore.

The government also decided to extend the five per cent interest subsidy scheme for all the loans taken by Rytu Mitra groups. At present, the scheme is available only for co-operative loans taken by these groups.

The groups, numbering around two lakh, can avail of the interest subsidy on new loans taken from commercial banks, urban co-operative banks, regional rural banks and co-operative institutions.

With an eye on the ensuing polls, the government sanctioned another six lakh old-age pensions under National Family Benefit Scheme (NFBS). Of the six lakh pensions, one lakh each was earmarked for widows and handicapped persons. The beneficiaries would be paid a monthly pension of Rs 75 till death.

The cabinet decided to give four per cent interest subsidy for the CMEY (chief minister's empowerment of youth) groups on bank loans.

The cabinet approved payment of Rs 100 crore to Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) by way of ad hoc financial assistance to meet the financial burden arising due to subsidy schemes for various categories in travel charges. This amount is 50 per cent of the actual financial burden on account of subsidy in rates.

The cabinet also decided to amend the section 28 of the Registration Act-1908 to enable registration of immovable properties at any sub-registrar office, irrespective of the location of property. At present, registration of any immovable property has to be done only at the sub-registrar office concerned.

The cabinet reviewed the ongoing execution of textile parks and leather parks. An amount of Rs 276.55 crore was sanctioned for the Krishna Pushkaram celebrations to be held in August and September.