Telangana government rolls out two more guarantees
Telangana Congress government launches two new guarantees: ₹500 LPG cylinders and free power for households using up to 200 units monthly under Gruha Jyothi scheme.
The Congress government in Telangana on Tuesday rolled out two more guarantees – supply of domestic LPG cylinders at ₹500 each and free power supply to households consuming up to 200 units per month under Gruha Jyothi scheme, as part of the six guarantees promised by the party during the recent assembly elections.
Launching the two schemes at a meeting in state secretariat, Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy recalled that within 48 hours of coming to power on December 7, the Congress government had fulfilled two guarantees – free bus travel for women in state-run RTC buses and enhancement of expenditure limit for the poor people in private hospitals under Arogyasri scheme from ₹5 lakh to ₹10 lakh.
“We are committed to implement all the six guarantees as promised to the people by our leader Sonia Gandhi at the public rally on September 17. We shall establish a Telangana model as the benchmark for all the states in the country in the implementation of welfare schemes,” he said.
Reddy said his government was implementing the guarantees in a phased manner after taking into account the financial situation of the state, which was crippled during the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi regime. “We are cutting down wasteful expenditure and following financial discipline scrupulously, so that we can implement the schemes in the larger interests of the people,” he said.
BRS working president K T Rama Rao said the Congress government was renegading on its pre-election promises. “During the elections, the Congress leaders promised to extend the guarantees to all the beneficiaries unconditionally. Now, the government is restricting the schemes only to a few people,” he criticised.
He warned that the BRS would not leave the Congress government if it did not implement all its guarantees. “We shall step up the agitation and see that the people would bury the Congress party in the next elections,” he said.
The chief minister said the civil supplies department and the energy department had done extensive study and held wide ranging consultations with stakeholders on the implementation of the two schemes and evolved the modalities. “The beneficiaries have been selected based on the applications received during the Praja Palana programme held between December 28 and January 6,” he said.
Appealing to the people not to fall into the trap of the BRS leaders, who were unleashing a false propaganda on the six guarantees, Reddy said there was no need for any apprehension over the implementation of the schemes.
Deputy chief minister and finance minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka said the government would overcome all the difficulties in arranging finances for the implementation of its six guarantees. “We are pooling up resources to meet our commitments. We have undertaken elaborate exercise before implementing these schemes,” he said.
Stating that there were no restrictions in implementing the schemes, Vikramarka said the schemes would be operational on a continuous basis and all the eligible families would be given the benefits of the guarantees.
According to official estimates, the subsidised supply of LPG cylinders at ₹500 each would benefit nearly 40 lakh consumers. As per the guidelines, the beneficiaries are mandated to have ration cards and only a limited number of cylinders will be supplied to each consumer based on their previous consumption.
The state government on Saturday released ₹80 crore towards subsidy reimbursement which will be released to the oil companies which in turn transfer the amount to the beneficiaries.
If the consumers purchased an average of five cylinders per annum in the last three years, he will be eligible to receive five subsidised cylinders. Similarly, those who consumed eight or nine cylinders, will be able to receive an equal number of cylinders.